Cheese can be good for you – but not on its own, scientists discover
EATING plenty of cheese is healthier than you might think, researchers have claimed, as they called for a food labelling revolution.
Researchers looked into the “French paradox” where a high consumption of cheese is not linked to increased cardiovascular disease and discovered that some foods are healthier than you think because of different reactions between the chemicals in them – and any other product they are eaten with.
It means the benefits of a particular food cannot be calculated on the basis of its individual protein, fat and fibre.
Cheese, for instance, has a lesser effect on blood cholesterol than would be expected from its saturated fat.
The findings follow a controversial report last year suggesting avoiding butter, cream, cheese and other fatty foods is actually exacerbating the obesity epidemic. Now an international panel of medics – including epidemiologists and nutritionists – have added weight to the idea by saying it is time to rethink food labelling. They focused on dairy products – and the complex mixture of nutrients and bioactive substances, such as minerals and vitamins.
This can affect digestion – ultimately changing the overall nutritional and health properties of a particular food.
Yoghurt and cheese were more beneficial to bone health, body weight and the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases than would be expected from their saturated fat and calcium content.
This is despite the former being notoriously high in salt.
The study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition said food must be evaluated as a whole – rather than individual nutrients.
Study leader Dr Tanja Kongerslev Thorning, of Copenhagen University, explained scientists have long wondered why the actual effects of a food are at variance with those expected on the basis of its nutrition content.
She said: “Researchers have become more skilful over the years, and we have acquired more methods for exploring what specific nutrients mean for digestion and health.
“But when we eat, we do not consume individual nutrients. We eat the whole food either alone or together with other foods in a meal. It therefore seems obvious that we should assess food products in context.”
Ultimately this means the composition of a food can alter the properties of the nutrients contained within it.
Prof Ian Givens, a nutritionist at Reading University who co-led the group, said: “More studies are needed, but ultimately it seems some areas of nutrition science need to be rethought.”