‘Dairy causes inflammation’ is a popular catch cry in the ‘alternative health’ sphere that I hear oft repeated. The scientific evidence shows the opposite though, with dairy having significant anti-inflammatory action.
Is dairy really an inflammatory food that should be on the ‘avoid’ list for everyone? I’ve always wondered how it has come to be, that my decades in medical nutrition research, my subscription to 23 leading medical and nutrition journals and keeping up with almost all areas of nutrition research that I’ve missed this link?
And I don’t mean an isolated study or two that shows that dairy causes inflammation. You can put a case forward for any food or nutrient causing or preventing any disease you want if you dig deep enough in the literature (as my viral Broccoli is Toxic blog post showed). I mean a consistent narrative of demonstrating inflammation seen across animal, observational and intervention studies and which outweighs studies that don’t show it or the opposite.
Well, here we have a just published systematic review of the clinical evidence from 52 trials looking at dairy consumption and inflammation. And the result? Dairy actually has significant anti-inflammatory action which is bang on what I would expect considering the range of bioactive compounds in it linked to this. And no, the study was not funded by the dairy industry.
It is only in people with dairy allergies (intolerances are not allergies) that you see inflammation and which should be surprising to no one. Peanuts, shellfish, eggs and so the list goes on are all ‘inflammatory’ if you have an allergy – that’s what an allergic reaction is after all.
If you don’t like milk-based foods, have ethical issues with it, or even have some tolerance issues with it – don’t eat or drink it – simple. Lots of other delicious foods to eat in the world. But don’t cut it from your diet just because of popularist woo pushed by ‘wellness’ bloggers.
Vince says
I love your title here. Too cool.
The debate around dairy is a fascinating one. I’ve noticed that there are so many emotional responses to the topic – with many people sticking to their guns, regardless of what science has to say.
Brad says
Dairy causes inflammation in the people it causes inflammation in? The line of reasoning behind the ‘sensitivity’ and ‘allergy’ rubbish is flawed. Diary causes inflammation in some people because it causes inflammation! Don’t drink it! I have yet to meet or hear of someone allergic to lettuce, but I know 20+ people who inflame at the mere sight of dairy…
Bo says
I am a pescetarian that eats a lot of dairy, what is the problem? I Believe in a balance between SFA,MUFA and PUFA so I I prefer to get my SFA from milk and not butter which is not whole food.
Bo says
I Keep on eating healthy pescetarian food. I do not like egg yolks. Off coarse I do not eat meat or poultry.
josh says
Tim, everyone is different. In the past year I have eaten only two things in my diet, due to severe allergies and diseases: dairy products (cow, goat, sheep milks in all forms) and meats. And I can only speak for myself, but when I have ate dairy, my body has gotten inflamed. It seems to be more of the pasteurized milk, because i eat raw meat and there isn’t anything toxic from that. I expect some responses to this, but again speaking for myself, dairy does cause inflammation for me. So I would suspect it does for others.
Tim Crowe says
Hi Josh – no question that people react to foods differently – that’s what I was covering in the second last paragraph of the article. It is generic advice for people to avoid dairy in general that the article was pitched against when if you look at the larger population, overall dairy will be neutral or anti-inflammatory.
Andreas says
The milk we get in stores causes inflammation because of the pasteurization.
Lily says
Every person reacts differently to each diet. I’m too tired with a new born to bother researching much but thank God that when we look up foods that cause inflammation dairy comes up first. I had bilateral de quervains tenosynovitis, my liver became inflamed during pregnancy and I had other terrible inflammation. I was terrified I was going to have early onset arthritis and die young from this whack a mole with inflammation. After being offered cortisone injections in my wrists I got desperate. Googled foods that caused inflammation. Cut out dairy and within 4 days could lift my baby son without agony. If it doesn’t effect everyone that’s great. But it’ll always be the first thing I suggest to friends and family to try cutting out. And just another thought now that I’m breast feeding and know that my milk is taylor made perfectly for my baby, it seems absurd that we would consume the milk that is made especially for each particular calf. Or be told its actually a necessary part of a healthy diet. I doubt anyone would think that of my human breast milk if I said it was necessary for your health. But that of another species is acceptable.. Just seems weird to me now. However, I miss cheese. Especially Swiss.
maru says
Lily
I wav a vegan for about 8 years and suffered from chronic joint pain, according to my Dr. I had fibromyialgia and was prescribed Lyrica.I gained 20 pounds in just a few months and my pain didn’t get better. I didn’t drink any milk for many years and I had a lot of imflammation anyway. A few months ago I read the book “Grain Brain” and realized that I had make myslef sick by eating so many grains during so many years. I thought that grains were very healthy although some of them caused upset stomach and a lot of gas!! I stop the grains and sugar 100% and I lost a lot of weight and my joint pain is gone. I added dairy and fish because I was losing too muche weight, and although I’ve read that milk causes imflammation, IN MY CASE, it has not, grains and sugar did!! I’ve been making yogurt using raw milk and sometimes I do have a glass and so far, no imflammation and no pain, it’s been 4 months that I’ve been eating dairy again.
maru says
Lily
I wav a vegan for about 8 years and suffered from chronic joint pain, according to my Dr. I had fibromyialgia and was prescribed Lyrica.I gained 20 pounds in just a few months and my pain didn’t get better. I didn’t drink any milk for many years and I had a lot of imflammation anyway. A few months ago I read the book “Grain Brain” and realized that I had make myslef sick by eating so many grains during so many years. I thought that grains were very healthy although some of them caused upset stomach and a lot of gas!! I stop the grains and sugar 100% and I lost a lot of weight and my joint pain is gone. I added dairy and fish because I was losing too muche weight, and although I’ve read that milk causes imflammation, IN MY CASE, it has not, grains and sugar did!! I’ve been making yogurt using raw milk and sometimes I do have a glass and so far, no imflammation and no pain, it’s been 4 months that I’ve been eating dairy again.
Chris says
Hi Lily, do you eat eggs?
Tim Crowe says
Great question Chloe and certainly on the same page as you that cutting out dairy isn’t an isolated dietary change so hard to ascribe a ‘real ‘effect on this with individual case reports. There are a whole range of lifestyle factors linked with lower crhonic inflammation which included exercise, fibre, less trans fats (so less discretionary food pretty much), fruit, vegetables, wholegrains, fish and weight loss so very plausible that dietary and lifestyle changes will include some of these if someone is focussed on ‘reducing inflammation’ on top of then cutting out dairy.
The premise of the article is about dairy causing inflammation in the first place, and the range of conditions you outlined, while yes, not a lot of studies in them, aren’t ones that are linked to dairy ‘causing’ in the first place to any real extent. A key point from the paper is that dairy had a stronger anti-inflammatory effect in metabolic conditions which are its heart, are chronic inflammatory conditions, so the case is strong, In the end, if someone feels better for cutting out dairy, great, but there are lots of other things that could be looked at in diet and lifestyle that are more strongly linked to it.
Chloe M says
Thanks Tim! Sorry for my slow thank you, have only just seen the reply 🙂
Is such a fascinating area!
Chloe M says
Hey Tim!
Great post! So much misinformation out there. Was wondering if you can comment on autoimmune conditions and joint conditions though? It says that these come under ‘other’ at the start, however there is only one rheumatoid arthritis study, one gout study, one coeliac disease study, three ulcerative colitis studies, one for IBD in infants and one for MS (overweight and obese people). I don’t feel that this is really enough evidence to say there is no role for dairy and inflammation in this population subgroup from a systematic review level…
I regularly work with people in these subgroups, particularly RA, and whilst we do not automatically remove dairy, many of these people (not all) do report feeling better, and show improved inflammatory markers with the removal of dairy (apart from Gout, which has clearly been shown to be improved with inclusion of milk). Yes, we could argue that the improvement is due to overall dietary improvement etc etc, however I would love to hear your expert thoughts on this!
Thank you in advance 🙂
Chloe
Beth Rosen, MS, RD, CDN @ Goodness Gracious Living says
AMEN! Thanks for sharing. Same goes for gluten. Unless you have an allergy, intolerance, or sensitivity, eat whole grains, including wheat.
Andrea says
My dietician actually explained to me that technically there’s no such thing as gluten intolerance. You’re either coeliac, or your intolerance is actually from FODMAPs and therefore it’s the fructans in grains that may cause belly upset, not the gluten.
Tim Crowe says
Great question Laura and it comes down to what ‘inflammation’ is defined as, as that which is related to immune system activation and is also linked with metabolic disease is systemic through the body and more chronic and there is often no external physical sign of it (see it has to be measured through blood analysis for example). ‘Acute’ inflammation is a different matter and is a normal healthy metabolic response (such as what happens when you cut yourself for example) so yes, while it could argued that an intolerance has some level of localised acute inflammatory response, it is just a signal to eat less of that food to remove the irritant – I don’t know too many people who have lactose intolerance who keep drinking milk and causing themselves continual GI problems on purpose!
Laura says
Great post Tim! Curious about intolerances though. Surely they cause inflammation? Or is it a different mechanism?