Regular Milk Drinkers May Have Lower Stroke Risk

A diet rich in milk does not increase the risk of heart disease and stroke as previously thought and may even be protective, concludes new research, reports Dominique Patton. Milk is widely believed to threaten heart health because it raises cholesterol levels. Also ecological studies have found a positive relationship between the average per capita milk production in a number of countries and heart disease deaths. But the new study by researchers from the University of Bristol, the University of Wales and the University of Ulster in the UK challenges these beliefs and will lend support to the increasingly health-related marketing activity done by the European dairy industry. The researchers used data provided by more than 650 middle-aged men who had been asked to record all food and drink consumption over a seven-day period. This method is said to offer more reliable information on total food intakes than a food frequency questionnaire, which researchers use to gain an estimate of typical food intake. Many of the studies on milk to date have used food frequency questionnaires. Following up for stroke and heart disease cases 20 years later, the UK team found that those men who consumed at least 200ml of milk a day were half as likely to experience stroke as those drinking the least milk. This amount is recommended by the dairy industry as providing a third of an adult's daily calcium requirement. The scientists report in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health (issue 59, pp 502-5) that men who drank the most milk were also at lower risk of ischaemic heart disease.