nutmeg/health

Drinking milk 'no risk to heart' (if you're a man at least. Survey didn't include women.)

From the page: "Scientists found drinking milk does not increase the risk of heart disease and stroke - in fact it may even have a protective effect.

The researchers, from the University of Bristol, found men who consumed at least 200ml a day were less likely to develop ischaemic heart disease."

The researchers suggest several reasons why this might be so, including that "those men who drank the least milk - less than 200ml a day - tended to drink the most alcohol" and "although milk contained saturated fats, which are known to be bad for health, it could be that this negative effect was counter-balanced by beneficial ingredients. For instance, calcium has been shown to lower blood pressure".

The study includes data from 665 men from south Wales, aged 45-59, who kept detailed diaries of their food and drink consumption, and who underwent regular health checks over a period of 20 years.

Not so long ago milk was declared an unhealthy component of the diet. Just goes to confirm my belief that if you don't like the results from a particular study of what constitutes a healthy food then just wait a while and another study will come along to contradict it :-)