Nutritionists and doctors have previously warned that people on a low carbohydrate diet should not be eating meat for a significant period after finishing dieting. However, Danish researchers recently suggested that cheese is not a type of fat that is particularly bad for cholesterol levels.
The researchers claimed that cheese should be downgraded in its health concerns to the same level as butter. The study is being conducted at the University of Copenhagen and people were given cheese and then have their cholesterol levels checked. The measurement of cholesterol level was of LDL cholesterol, which is the bad type. The study found that those consuming the extra cheese had the same level of cholesterol as they had before the cheese eating began.
The study involved 50 people and it is recently published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. The entire diet of the volunteers was controlled and the amount of cheese that was given to the subject was set at a specific level.
The study was made up of several six-week intervals and these were separated by a two-week periods to clear the system of any additional cholesterol. After the switch the cheese eaters return to a normal diet and there was also another group that were eating butter to see whether the cheese had an equivalent effect to it.
Those on the cheese diet were consuming a larger amount of fat than is normal but it was found that there cholesterol levels did not increase. Interestingly, the group that we eating butter had their cholesterol levels increased by nearly 8%.
Cholesterol is a lipid which is a fatty substance the liver makes after processing fatty foods and it is essential for our body to function in a normal way. It is used in the body to form the outer layer of the cell as well as making hormones that aiding digestion. However, having high cholesterol levels can increase the risk of stroke and heart attack as it narrows the blood vessels that run throughout the body.
It was found that those eating cheese caused a fall in the level of good cholesterol that they had. The researchers at the University wrote in the paper, “Compared with eating butter, cheese lowers the level of LDL-cholesterol in subjects. Additionally, it does not increase the level of LDL-cholesterol compared with the normal diet.”
The study comes to no conclusive reason why the cholesterol levels are lower for cheese than butter but they did say they detected more fat in the faeces of subjects when they were eating cheese. However, these amounts were not statistically significant and so do not suggest why the level was lower than with butter.
The researchers suggested that it might be that the higher level of protein in cheese and the fact that it has been fermented that affects the amount of cholesterol it causes the body to produce. It is expected that this causes a difference in the way the cheese is digested.
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