Dairy

A study shows a plant-based diet offers protection whilst a meat-based one can contribute to damage

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) occurs when fat is deposited in the liver due to causes other than excessive alcohol use. It’s considered to be one of the symptoms of metabolic syndrome, which also includes obesity, insulin resistance (pre-diabetic stage), elevated fat levels in the blood and high blood pressure. It comes as no surprise that it’s been linked to unhealthy diets and increasingly younger people develop this condition.

A new review of evidence shows how fantastic plant foods are for your heart

Dairy and other animal fats have been shown to put you at risk of heart disease and stroke

Dairy products contain varying amounts of fat but a considerable portion of it is always saturated fat. This study investigated the link between dairy fat intake and the incidence of heart disease and stroke among 220,000 people whose diets and health were followed for decades.

According to a new study published in May 2015, a low-fat vegan diet can reduce the pain associated with diabetic neuropathy (nerve pain frequently experienced by diabetics). In this pilot study, diabetics were either assigned to a low-fat vegan diet or to a control group with no diet change. Everyone was given a vitamin B12 supplement for the 20 weeks of the study and at the end, the vegan group achieved improved blood-sugar control with some patients needing to have their medication reduced.

People who have lactose intolerance can’t digest lactose, the sugar in milk, and therefore have to avoid dairy products. As milk and dairy products consumption has been suggested to play a role in the development of some types of cancer, Swedish scientists decided to do a population study and investigate whether lactose intolerant people get less cancer. The cancer types in question were lung, breast and ovary.

Results of a long-term study showed that milk consumption during adolescence will not protect you from fractures and poor bone health later in life. We all know the dairy industry want us to believe we need milk and keep telling us it’ll help our bones but it’s simply a lie. In fact, the researchers found that men consuming high amounts of milk during adolescence had a higher risk of hip fracture in adulthood.

It’s official; vegetarians and vegans get less cancer. A new study from Oxford University, looking at how diet affects cancer risk, has revealed that people who don’t eat meat have a much lower risk of getting the disease. The 15-year study followed 60,000 British men and women, of which over 18,000 were vegetarians and 2,246 vegan. They found that cancer incidence was 11 per cent lower in vegetarians, but a whopping 19 per cent lower in vegans. This adds to a huge body of evidence showing how red and processed meat increases the risk of cancer and other diseases.