For decades, we were told to avoid full-fat dairy. New research says otherwise — SkimNews
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- University of Toronto researchers, led by Temerty Medicine professor Harvey Anderson, randomly assigned 74 adults with overweight or obesity for 12 weeks to one of three diets — calorie-restricted with little dairy, three daily dairy servings at energy balance, or three daily dairy servings with no calorie restrictions — and supplied the full-fat products themselves.
- Harvey Anderson said participants eating three servings a day had "no adverse levels of blood cholesterol or lipids or evidence of insulin resistance," with no meaningful differences in weight gain or body composition versus the little-dairy group.
- Participants in the two higher-dairy arms improved blood pressure and consumed more calcium, protein and vitamin D after 12 weeks than the low-dairy group.
- The Journal of Nutrition published the trial in its 2026 volume 156, issue 4 (article 101373), and all participants received meal guidance based on Canada's food guide.
- The dairy matrix hypothesis, cited by Anderson, holds that casein and whey bound together with fat and nutrients in whole dairy foods slow their release during digestion, so a whole food's effect can differ from that of isolated saturated fat.
- Kozeta Milliku, a Temerty Medicine professor, found in a separate study that whole-fat milk consumption was associated with a lower risk of childhood obesity.
- Dairy Research Cluster 3 funded the work under the Canadian Agricultural Partnership AgriScience Program alongside Mitacs Accelerate, while the researchers acknowledged 74 participants over 12 weeks cannot establish long-term effects on diabetes or cardiovascular disease.
Why it matters: Canadian nutrition guidelines still steer shoppers toward low-fat dairy, yet this 74-person, 12-week trial found no weight or cholesterol penalty for three daily full-fat servings and improved blood pressure — narrowing, for now, the case against a food group many older adults rely on for protein.
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