Milk and aging…
…let’s understand the connection.
You cannot imagine a morning without a coffee with milk? Or perhaps you love milk with your cereal? You are not the only one! However, reading through a study run by Prof. Tucker of Bringham Young University might make you think again.
The study concludes a strong correlation between a consumption of high fat milk and an increased speed of aging in adults. Milk makes us age faster! The fact that high fat milk might not be that good for adults has been debated for a while, although hard evidence was lacking. This has changed. Let’s arm ourselves with the knowledge that can help us make better decisions around how much and even whether we include milk in our diet…
Let’s find out what happens to us when we drink milk and which milk impacts our longevity the most. What options do we have if we like milk but want to make the best choices for our health.
So what happens if we drink high fat milk?
Our relationship with milk is a complex one. Milk is a wonder. It is full of nutrients, such as calcium, which is difficult to substitute elsewhere in sufficient quantities without using supplements. Milk contains bioactive peptides that help increase the body’s immunity and act as antioxidants.
On the other hand, nature has designed milk to make calves grow quickly. For this reason, it is full of substances that stimulate growth on a cellular level. However, this stimulation of cell growth also accelerates cell aging and increases the likelihood of aging related illnesses. Milk is great as a nourishment for the young but becomes less beneficial as we age. In short, some may say it helps you to live fast but die young.
Milk makes us age faster. How does it work?
The substances in milk accelerate cell growth, meaning that cells work in overdrive. This negatively impacts their lifespan. In order to understand aging in cells, we need to know what telomeres are. Once we know what milk does to telomeres, we know how it impacts aging.
Telomeres
Telomeres are nucleotides, a repetitive DNA sequence at the end of a chromosome. They protect the chromosome but each time DNA replicates, they become shorter. Telomere length is inversely linked to aging in humans. How much they shorten depends not only on chronological age but also lifestyle. Provided we follow a healthy diet, get enough sleep, exercise, do not suffer from too much stress and don’t smoke or drink, the shortening of our telomeres progresses slower. On the other hand, poor lifestyle choices have the opposite effect.
The chromosome is represented by the yellowish rice pasta and the telomeres are represented by the red goji berries.
Milk and telomere shortening
Telomere shortening has consequences. We become more receptive to illness and our aging accelerates. Telomere length can be accurately measured from our DNA.
Telomere length and its correlation to milk consumption was the subject of a Prof. Tucker’s study of almost 6000 randomly selected US adults. The conclusion of this study is that adults that consume high fat milk have more shortening of the telomeres than those that drink low fat milk.
Should we rethink which milk we order in our latte?
As the study concluded: “For each 1 percentage point increase in milk fat consumed (e.g., 1% to 2%), adults had more than 4 years of additional biological aging.” (1) Another, perhaps surprising conclusion of this study was that people that did not drink any milk at all had shorter telomeres to those that consumed low fat milk. It might be that it is the fat that encourages aging rather than the milk itself. This is something that would require more research.
Milk and saturated fat
Nevertheless, one thing seems to be clear. The connection between milk fat and the aging of our cells might be partly caused by the amount of saturated fat in our diet. It is likely that individuals that consume high fat milk may consume more fat overall. The study also confirmed that people that consume less saturated fat will see a smaller impact of drinking milk on their telomere length.
According to the British NHS, the maximum daily amount of saturated fat for an adult male should not exceed 30g per day and 20g per day for females. (2) A large proportion of us exceed this limit.
Milk makes us age faster.
In order to reduce the speed of our aging, we need to ditch the high fat milk and replace it with a low fat alternative. Also, we need to keep an eye on our overall consumption of saturated fat, as it is likely to be connected to faster cellular aging. The question as to whether we should drink low fat milk or replace it with nondairy alternatives, such as unsweetened almond or oat milk is not that clear cut. It would be fascinating to know what future research discovers.
Let’s stay in touch!
Do you agree that milk makes us age faster? Let us know your thoughts on milk and which milk you currently drink on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or TikTok. For the latest on nutrition, check the latest Workout Bestie blog here.
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Milk Fat Intake and Telomere Length in U.S. Women and Men: The Role of the Milk Fat Fraction, Larry A. Tucker, Milk Fat Intake and Telomere Length in U.S. Women and Men: The Role of the Milk Fat Fraction – PubMed (nih.gov)
NHS, Facts about fat: Facts about fat – NHS (www.nhs.uk)
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