Background – Dairy foods such as cheese and yogurt provide a health promoting option, and components present within their fat could be offering some significant benefits. Dairy fat has an optimal ratio of w6/w3 fatty acids (2), along with conjugated linoleic acids (CLA) are also present (particularly cis-9, trans-11 18:2) which have been identified as potentially beneficial to bowel health eg antiinflammatory and cancer preventing effects (1).
Design – Dairy fat has undergone investigation in experimental animal models of disease, and in human clinical studies, to evaluate potential benefits with respect to bowel cancer prevention.
Outcomes – A rat study of high fat diets showed cheese was an optimal source of w3 fatty acids producing high concentrations of long chain w3 fatty acids: EPA and DHA in liver triglycerides. A report by Larsson et al (2) from the women’s mammography prospective cohort study showed that over 15 years of observation the highest intakes of full fat dairy products (≥ 4 serves/day) were associated with reduced expression of colorectal cancers (down by 41%, p trend = 0.002) relative to those ingesting ≤ 1 serve of dairy per day. CLA intake in this study also showed there was a significant inverse association (multivariate rate ratio 0.71, p trend = 0.004). Increased apoptosis was identified in animal studies as a possible protective mechanism.
Conclusions – Dairy foods have an important role to play in health and carry some functionally significant components (w3FAs and CLA) of benefit in maintaining bowel health.
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