Dr Mente believes that the issue of cardiovascular disease and early mortality in society may not be due to overindulgence of meat, dairy or saturated fats but actually under-nutrition caused by people not eating enough key food groups.
He believes there is now evidence to suggest that dairy foods, especially whole-fat dairy, may be protective against hypertension and metabolic syndrome which are common drivers of cardiovascular disease.
The study, published in the European Heart Journal, scored a person’s diet on a scale of one to zero for six different categories, creating a perfect score of six, and the closer to zero a person was, the worse their diet ranked.
The average mark was 2.95, and the people above five, the top 20 per cent, were 30 per cent less likely to suffer an early death than those in the bottom quintile of less than one.
Data show that the people with the worst diets in the study, scoring less than one point overall, actually had the lowest level of saturated fat intake. Avoiding saturated fats is a central tenet of many modern diets yet those with the smallest amount in their daily food were the least healthy, the study found.
“[This] strongly suggests that current targeted dietary guidance limiting the consumption of saturated fat and dairy in many populations of the world may not be warranted,” Dr Mente said.
“The Pure diet is similar to several other common diet patterns like the Mediterranean diet which emphasises increased fruit, vegetables, legumes, nuts, and fish, with some differences in their focus on different types of fats and the consumption of dairy.
“Our findings show that a similar dietary pattern, but which also includes dairy foods – consumed mostly as whole fat dairy – may have the most favourable associations with health outcomes in a global population.”
A recent special issue of a scientific journal brought together dozens of food experts who concluded that meat is crucial for human…
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