Dairy Trans Fats Don’t Raise Heart Disease Risk, New Study Finds

The trans fats in your butter are nothing like the kind in processed foods.

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Trans fats have long been vilified as the worst fats for your heart health, but a new study found that these fats may not all be dietary villains—precisely those from an actual cow. Dairy has long intrigued scientists and healthcare professionals because, despite containing saturated fats and naturally occurring trans fats, dairy has often been linked to better heart and brain health.

A new study has found that trans fats found in dairy products such as milk, butter, and cheese do not raise the risk of heart disease or Type 2 diabetes.

Researchers analyzed data from studies involving thousands of people across Europe, Canada, and the United States, finding that natural trans fats behave very differently in the body than industrial trans fats.

Dairy Trans Fats Are Different

The study, recently published in Nutrition Research, examined two types of evidence. The first involved 10 cohort studies in which participants ate dairy products with naturally higher trans fats, with dairy intakes ranging from 1.3 to 13.2 grams.

Researchers found no significant differences between participants who ate trans fat-enhanced dairy and those who ate regular dairy when examining participants’ biomarkers. Specifically, higher intakes of dairy-derived trans fats did not significantly increase total cholesterol, LDL (“bad”) cholesterol, triglycerides, or apolipoprotein B-100, a marker used to assess risk for heart and blood vessel disease.

The second type of evidence drew on 12 long-term studies tracking thousands of people over more than two decades. Researchers analyzed the levels of dairy trans fats in blood samples, and found that higher levels of dairy trans fats were linked to reduced risks of heart disease, stroke, death from cardiovascular causes, or Type 2 diabetes.

Researchers speculate that naturally occurring trans fats and industrial trans fats have different effects on the body.

Industrial trans fats are created artificially by blasting liquid vegetable oil with hydrogen gas and metal catalysts—a process called partial hydrogenation—which creates a high concentration of elaidic acid, strongly associated with metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned the use of partially hydrogenated oils in January 2020, though older or imported products may still contain them.

Natural trans fats, by contrast, are produced by bacteria in the stomachs of grazing animals such as cows, goats, and sheep. The result is vaccenic acid and conjugated linoleic acid, compounds that research has linked to anti-obesity and anti-cancer effects.

“People hear the words ‘trans fats’ and assume the worst, but the trans fats in your morning milk, yogurt, butter, or cheese are not the same as the ones from industrial partially hydrogenated fats,” Ian Givens, co-lead study author from the University of Reading, said in a statement.

He told The Epoch Times that he doesn’t know of any labeling policies that accurately reflect the differences between natural and industrial trans fats—something he hopes the new findings will help change.

Foods as a Whole

The findings add to previous research linking dairy consumption to a lower risk of Type 2 diabetes, improved gut health, better cognitive function (which may reduce dementia risk), and even a decreased risk of heart disease.

Givens said his research should reassure people that dairy, eaten as part of a balanced diet, is “not something to worry about for your heart.”

If you see “partially hydrogenated oil” or “partially hydrogenated soybean oil” on the labels, “you should avoid those products,” Diana Cusa, senior dietitian at Plainview Hospital, part of Northwell Health in New York, and not involved in the study, told The Epoch Times.

Hope Barkoukis, chair of the Department of Nutrition at Case Western University, said that the science is still evolving.

Because different types of saturated and trans fats affect health differently, she said, researchers need to look beyond total saturated fat content and consider the “total food matrix”— the full spectrum of fatty acids a food contains and their combined effects on the body.

“It’s not enough to just look at total saturated fats.”

Correction: A previous version of the article incorrectly stated that higher levels of dairy fats were linked to increased health risks. The Epoch Times regrets this error.