The Study
Dairy consumption and 10-y total and cardiovascular mortality: a prospective cohort study in the Netherlands.
This study watched what people ate for 10 years and saw if they got sick or died. It found that people who ate more butter sometimes died a little more often, but that doesn't mean butter killed them—it could be because they also smoked or didn't exercise. So we can only say dairy and death might be connected, not that one causes the other.
Analysis score
Maximum 72 for a cohort study.
Where the score came from
Scientists looked at what older adults ate and saw if it changed how long they lived.
Where does this study sit?
Reviews of RCTs (Meta-analyses)
Max 100Randomized Trials
Max 90Reviews of Cohort Studies
Max 85Cohort Studies
Max 72Reviews of Case-Control Studies
Max 63Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional & Case Series
Max 50Expert Opinion
Max 552 / 100
Quality score
Groups of people are followed over time to see who develops an outcome. Strong for identifying risk factors and associations, but cannot prove causation as firmly as RCTs.
Key takeaways
Summary
Based on the study abstract and findings.
- 1The changes are tiny — eating a little more butter might add a few extra deaths per 1,000 people over 10 years.
- 2Fermented milk might help a little, but it's not a magic fix.
- 3Women who ate 10g more butter per day had a 4% higher chance of dying over 10 years.
- 4Women and men who drank fermented full-fat milk had a slightly lower chance of dying.
- 5Overall, eating dairy didn't change death risk for men.
Score breakdown, methodology, conflicts of interest, evidence analysis & raw study data
Publication
Journal
The American journal of clinical nutrition
Year
2011
Authors
R. Goldbohm, A. Chorus, F. Galindo Garre, L. Schouten, P. A. van den Brandt
Related Content
Claims (5)
In men aged 55 to 69, eating dairy products as part of the diet does not change the risk of dying from any cause or from heart disease.
People who consume dairy have a very slight increase in death risk compared to those who do not, but the difference is so small that it may be due to other lifestyle habits rather than dairy itself.
Women aged 55 to 69 who consume 10 more grams of butter or dairy fat per day have a 4% higher risk of dying from any cause or from ischemic heart disease over 10 years compared to those who consume less.
People aged 55–69 who consume fermented full-fat milk have a lower rate of death from any cause compared to those who do not, but there is no clear link between this milk and death from stroke.
Consuming butter and dairy fat is associated with higher mortality risk in women, while consuming fermented milk is associated with lower mortality risk, showing that different dairy products have different effects on lifespan.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making health decisions.