Abstract

Dietary guidelines focus extensively on reducing saturated fat consumption despite the inconclusive evidence for some foods which contain saturated fat, such as dairy products. Conversely, accumulating evidence suggests that fermented dairy products such as yoghurt are inversely associated with cardio-metabolic disease, although relevant mechanisms have not been established and issues of measurement errors in self-reported methods of dietary assessment remain concerning. Based on these gaps, the aim of my research is to disentangle the relevant pathways through the investigation of the associations of dairy products with cardio-metabolic risk and adiposity. Preliminary results from the analysis of population-based data in the Fenland study including 12,435 adults show that higher consumption of milk was associated with lower body fat, while greater high-fat cheese consumption was related with higher body fat. Additionally, my on-going research will use metabolomics data to derive potential objective biomarkers for the assessment of dairy products intake, and the use of genetic data will also help to elucidate potential pathways related to dairy consumption and to investigate causality of associations with disease endpoints using Mendelian randomisation approaches. Combining traditional nutritional epidemiology approaches with modern tools such as metabolomics and genomics will contribute to formulate optimal dietary guidelines.