Calcium Counteracts Rise In Cholesterol From Dairy Fat

A Danish study involving nine participants who ate diets containing the same amount of calories but varying levels of dairy fat and calcium over ten days found that a diet rich in dairy calcium reduced LDL (“bad cholesterol”) associated with high saturated dairy fat without affecting HDL cholesterol. The four diets consisted of low calcium and low fat, high calcium and low fat, low calcium and high fat or high calcium and high fat. Milk was the main high calcium source for participants. The low calcium diet included a protein drink containing amounts of whey, casein powders and lactose equivalent to milk. “Dairy calcium seems to partly counteract the raising effect of dairy fat on total and LDL-cholesterol, without reducing HDL-cholesterol,” the researchers concluded.