People who regularly ate higher-fat cheese and cream had a lower risk of developing dementia over 25 years, while low-fat dairy and other dairy foods showed no clear association, according to a new study.
Those who consumed 50 grams per day or more of high-fat cheese daily – roughly a third of a cup – had a lower overall risk of dementia, vascular dementia, a form of cognitive decline caused by impaired blood flow to the brain, according to the 25-year Swedish study of nearly 28,000 people published in Neurology , the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
People who averaged at least 20 grams of high-fat cream – about one and a half tablespoons – also showed a lower dementia risk, the study indicated.
However, the study did not find similar benefits for low-fat cheese, low-fat cream or butter. Milk consumption, whether high- or low-fat, also did not lower dementia risk.
