🫀 Higher dairy intake associated with better cardiovascular outcomes. What now?

Many health ‘experts’ are against promoting dairy given its high saturated fat content.

A recent meta-analysis of already published studies found a small protective effect of total dairy intake on cardiovascular disease.

Each serving/day increment of total dairy products was related to a ~2% lower cardiovascular disease risk.

Cheese and fermented dairy had the strongest effect, while yogurt and milk had weak or no effect.

Full fat dairy is also:

• Nutrient rich: protein, calcium, vitamins (e.g. vitamin K2) short chain fatty acids and probiotics

• High in healthy fats. This can help with appetite control and blood sugar maintenance, which can promote maintenance of a healthy weight.

This study is important because it combats the stigma against dairy, especially cheese, since it highlights generally beneficial relationships between higher cheese and dairy intake and cardiovascular health.

However, different forms of dairy likely have different health impacts. The study couldn’t examine different types of yoghurt (let’s say) because sweetened yogurt isn’t the same as full fat simple Greek yogurt. This is also why there was probably no protective associated noted for yoghurt overall.

🥊 Punchline

Full fat dairy, in particular cheese and fermented dairy, has been associated with lower risk of cardiovascular disease.

🌱 How practical is to meet protein goals with plant-based foods?

There is a trend of an increased interest in plant-based diets.

This includes greater consumption of plant-based proteins at the expense of animal-based proteins.

But achieving 20 g of protein from plant-based foods is more challenging than from animal-derived sources. This, in turn, can lead to higher caloric intake.

For instance, to get 20 g of protein, you'd need around 100 g of meat or salmon, but significantly more volume and calories from plant-based sources like chickpeas or quinoa.

This is because animal-based sources like meat and eggs provide higher protein density, requiring fewer servings and calories.

Also, plant-derived proteins result in lower muscle growth likely because of the differences in protein digestion, amino acids composition and absorption.

The visual representation from the study illustrates the practicality of consuming 20 g of protein from various whole food sources. And with greater portion sizes also comes greater caloric intake.

Nutrient vs calorie density is an important factor to consider when planning your diet or aiming to optimise your nutrition, especially for athletes.

🥊 Punchline

Meeting protein goals from plant-based foods is more challenging and can lead to higher caloric intake compared to animal-based sources due to lower protein density (and quality).

🫁 Can reducing carbs enhance fitness endurance?

High carbohydrate diets have been promoted for their potential to increase body stores of energy and therefore improve fitness performance and reduce risk of premature fatigue.

A new study in trained Ironman triathletes, compared the efficiency of a High Carb Low Fat (with carbs intake of 380 g/day) versus a Very Low Carb (with carbs intake of 40 g/day) for 6 weeks each.

After each 6-week diet, triathletes completed a time-based exhaustive endurance test (at 70% VO2max) while consuming 10g carbs per hour during training (this is 6 - 12x lower than current fuelling recommendations).

The Very Low Carb diet resulted in ketone production (metabolic ketosis), which peaked after 4-weeks, and normalisation of blood glucose concentrations.

Interestingly, there were no significant differences in endurance performance between the groups.

During exercise, 10g of carbs per hour was sufficient to prevent exercise-induced low blood sugar levels in both diets.

🥊 Punchline

A low-carb high fat diet can sustain strenuous endurance performance, with minimal carb refuelling during exercise (10 g/hr) to mitigates risk of hypoglycaemia. A minimum of 4-week adaptation period should be followed for those seeking to employ a ketogenic diet for performance.