People who drink whole milk regularly may be a bit more likely to die from any cause, heart disease, or cancer than those who drink skim or low-fat milk — but this doesn’t mean milk is the direct cause.

Drinking a lot of whole milk might raise your risk of dying from cancer, and the more you drink, the higher the risk — especially if you drink a lot.

If you’ve had breast cancer, eating a lot of full-fat dairy like whole milk, cheese, or butter might make you more likely to die from any cause — including things other than cancer — compared to eating only small amounts.

Eating a lot of full-fat dairy like cheese and butter might be linked to a higher chance of dying from cancers other than breast cancer — and it could be because it harms your heart or metabolism, not just because it feeds cancer.

Eating lots of full-fat dairy like cheese, butter, or cream seems to be linked to a higher chance of dying early, no matter which kind you choose—so it’s probably not the dairy itself, but something common in all of them, like saturated fat or hormones, that’s causing the problem.

For women who’ve had breast cancer, eating a lot of full-fat dairy like whole milk, cheese, or butter might raise their risk of dying from other health problems like heart disease or diabetes—not from the cancer coming back.