Study: Low-Fat Dairy Can Lead To Infertility

You might want to reconsider that low-fat dairy if you want kids

We've all heard that we should eat an adequate amount of dairy in our diet, but that we should choose the low-fat or fat-free versions of milk, cheese, and yogurt to provide the most "healthy" food for our bodies. If I had a dime every time I've heard that in my life, then I'd be as wealthy as Bill Gates!

But if you are a woman in those precious few childbearing years, then that widely-accepted dietary advice is just about the most foolish thing you could ever follow if you want to have a baby, according to a new Harvard study discussed in this Medical News Today column.

Lead researcher Dr. Jorge Chavarro, research fellow in the Department of Nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health, and his team observed 18,555 married, premenopausal women ages 24-42 with no history of infertility attempting to get pregnant over an eight-year period (1991-1999). This group of study participants was a subset of the larger group of 116,000 women that were part of The Nurses' Health Study II.

Dr. Chavarro monitored very closely the dietary intake of dairy foods by the women in the study, including the types and frequency of consumption, over the eight years. The women were also asked to provide information about the regularity of their period, if there were any problems with ovulation, and how their attempts to conceive a child were going.

A total of 438 women in the study experienced difficulty trying to have a baby during the study and Dr. Chavarro noticed that most of these women ate more than two portions of low-fat dairy foods daily. In fact, he quantified that women who eat that amount or higher of low-fat dairy every single day are 85 percent more likely to experience infertility compared with those women who eat it less often than once a week.

Interestingly, the researchers found something even more remarkable considering the dietary recommendations that rule the day in our society--those women who ate full-fat dairy foods, including whole milk and even ice cream, on a daily basis saw their risk of being infertile caused by ovulation problems drop by 25 percent compared to those who only ate full-fat dairy once a week. You read that right--CONSUMING FULL-FAT DAIRY DROPS THE RISK OF INFERTILITY BY TWENTY-FIVE PERCENT!

What does the lack of dietary fat from the dairy products consumed by women have to do with their risk for infertility? Plenty! The researchers believe there is a fat-soluble substance in the full-fat dairy foods that works to improve the function of the ovaries. Thus, when that fat-soluble substance gets taken out during the conversion to 2% or skim milk, the health benefits dissipate as well.

Additionally, the processing of full-fat milk to skimmed milk requires the addition of whey protein to the milk to give it a more "natural" taste and color. However, whey protein has been found to produce testosterone-like effects in lab rats and may be the culprit wit the infertility in women consuming low-fat dairy. Oops!

The results of this stunning Harvard study appeared in the February 28, 2007 issue of the scientific journal Reproductive Health.

Well how ya like them apples, hmmm? All this talk about cutting your fat intake way down low in everything you eat is one big crock of you know what and this study is more proof of that fact! Just for kicks, I decided to pay a visit to the Holy Grail of all things related to a healthy diet--MyPyramid.gov--just to see what the good ole health "experts" advising our government about what's really healthy had to say about dairy intake.

As Frank Barone on Everybody Loves Raymond used to say, "Holy crap!" Under the "Milk Group" page you see that they highly recommend that the "milk group choices should be fat-free or low-fat." But if you click on the "Tips for making wise choices" link on the upper right-hand side of the page, the "Holy-crap-o-meter" goes off the charts!

Check this out (see if you can find the common theme):

- Include milk as a beverage...Choose fat-free or low-fat milk.
- If you usually drink whole milk, switch...to fat-free milk.
- Try reduced fat (2%), then low-fat (1%), and finally fat-free (skim).
- If you drink cappuccinos or lattes—ask for...fat-free (skim) milk.
- Add fat-free or low-fat milk...to oatmeal and hot cereals.
- Use fat-free or low-fat milk when making...cream soups.
- Have fat-free or low-fat yogurt as a snack.
- Make a dip for fruits or vegetables from yogurt.
- Make fruit-yogurt smoothies in the blender.
- Make chocolate...pudding with fat-free or low-fat milk.
- Top cut-up fruit with flavored yogurt for a quick dessert.
- Top casseroles...or vegetables with shredded low-fat cheese.
- Top a baked potato with fat-free or low-fat yogurt.

What's wrong with this picture? Why all the intense focus on "fat-free or low-fat" options? Clearly these heavily-publicized dietary recommendations are creating a lot of unhappy young couples who are trying to bring a little bundle of joy into the world that they can call their own. On what basis are they pushing these nasty foods that are actually working against women who want to conceive all in the name of "better health?"

I remember from my personal low-fat diet experience in 1999 how utterly disgusting all those low-fat foods really are. The worst ones to me had to be the fat-free cheese and skim milk. The cheese was so gross and didn't even seem like real food. Describing it as a cardboard box texture is being MUCH too kind. And then the white water that passed for skim milk was about as useless and I never got used to drinking that stuff. Getting 2% was about as close as I could get to skim!

However, one thing I continued to do even after I stopped my low-fat diet and started gaining my weight back was to keep drinking 2% milk instead of whole thinking it was somehow a "healthy" alternative. When I started livin' la vida low-carb, I didn't drink regular milk anymore and switched to Hood's Carb Countdown (now called Calorie Countdown) milk instead.

Yet, I kept on buying 2% milk for my wife Christine. We will celebrate 12 years of marriage in August and have been desperately trying to have a baby since we said "I do" to each other in 1995. Unfortunately, the good Lord has not chosen to bless us with a little munchkin just yet and we trust in His perfect timing. But after reading this study, I can't help but think what role the 2% milk Christine has been consuming over the course of our marriage may have had on our inability to conceive. I don't know if it has anything to do with it or not, but you have to wonder.

We're working out the issues that could be the culprit by getting checked out to see if it's me or her preventing the conception, but I know one thing we're gonna start doing--BUYING WHOLE MILK FOR CHRISTINE AGAIN! It may not be the reason for our inability to have a baby at all, but it's certainly worth a try to see if we can get her ovulation to be more consistent and regular to set up a higher probability for a future pregnancy. Cross your fingers and wish us luck!

There have been previous studies that hinted at the possibility of problems with infertility linked to dairy foods, but hardly any of them have been on humans like this one was. That's why Dr. Chavarro wanted to see what impact the fat content in the dairy foods consumed in a woman's diet can play regarding the prospect for motherhood.

Their conclusion: "High intake of low-fat dairy foods may increase the risk of anovulatory infertility whereas intake of high-fat dairy foods may decrease this risk."

Did you get that all you Dr. Dean Ornish-loving low-fatties? Eating lots of low-fat dairy INCREASES infertility while eating lots of high-fat dairy DECREASES infertility. How much clearer can it be that that?! I'd love to hear what Ornish and his low-fat minions have to say about this Harvard study. Let the spinmeisters begin like they did following the Stanford study published in JAMA last month!

If you are a woman trying to have a baby, Dr. Chavarro recommended what I am going to do with Christine's dairy intake.

"Consider changing low-fat dairy foods for high-fat dairy foods; for instance, by swapping skimmed milk for whole milk and eating ice cream, not low fat yogurt," he stated.

HA! Now THAT'S a switch seeing a RECOMMENDATION to eat the high-fat version of a food INSTEAD of the low-fat one. It really makes you wonder what other unintended consequences of this low-fat diet LIE we have been told for decades has had on the health and well-being of our society. How many tens or even hundreds of thousands of women have been left without an answer to their infertility problem while our government has kept on peddling the very reason they never got to be a mother? How sad.

When you stop and think about it, you can't help but wonder out loud about what would have been or even still COULD be if our government would simply end their nonsensical endorsement of the biggest dietary failure of our generation. That's why I have been on the frontlines of the debate to have our government actively promote low-carb alongside low-fat as another healthy dietary option for people to consider for weight and health management.

But, as is the case with most researchers who come out with something positive regarding low-carb, high-fat consumption, Dr. Chavarro got right back on the government talking points in what he recommends after a woman is "with child."

"Once they have become pregnant, then they should probably switch back to low-fat dairy foods as it is easier to limit intake of saturated fat by consuming low-fat dairy foods," he explained.

And what exactly is wrong with saturated fat, Dr. Chavarro? Noted researcher Dr. Jeff Volek has found that consuming saturated fat in combination with a low-carbohydrate diet has no ill effect on your health. In fact, the so-called studies showing how "harmful" saturated fat is like this one are so ill-conceived that they are ripped to shreds by objective researchers like Anthony Colpo.

This continuous onslaught against saturated fat by people who are supposedly intellectuals regarding diet and health is needlessly causing alarm among the general public. The fact is eating saturated fat is good for you and it's high time we stop demonizing it in the same breath as trans fats. Those are indeed bad news for your health, but saturated fat is not even close. The studies about saturated fat are mounting quickly and all you "experts" can apologize to me later for being so ignorant about it now.

At this point, Dr. Chavarro would like to further his research on low-fat dairy as it relates to infertility so he can "confirm or refute the findings" from this study. We'll be watching for those results with great interest, Dr. Chavarro!

You can e-mail Dr. Jorge Chavarro at jchavarr@hsph.harvard.edu.

Ornish: Burden Of Proof On Low-Carb Advocates To Show Supporting Studies

(This is a continuation of my interview with Dr. Dean Ornish with Part 1 and Part 2 in a four-part series already published this week. Part 3 today highlights the surprising comments Dr. Ornish has about the low-fat and fat-free food industry, the volume of scientific evidence that is coming out in favor of the low-carb lifestyle, what he thinks of "moderation" and a "balanced" diet, and how he thinks people can transform their lives for the better.)

JIMMY MOORE: What about all these low-fat and fat-free food products that dominate the food market, but are loaded with tons of excess sugar and refined carbs that you loathe so much? Do you support these products?

DEAN ORNISH: People are going out and eating the Snackwell cookies and the fat-free desserts and cakes that may be very low in fat, but very high in sugar--I've never recommended that which is why I've been more explicit in clarifying that.

At the same time, a lot of the Atkins people have become convinced that eating butter and pork rinds with their bacon and sausage is a particularly healthy way to eat and it's not. I mean the fruits and vegetables and whole grains are now being recommended by many of the Atkins advocates as well.

There's so many things to fight about in this country, I think it's really more important that we can try to find the areas that we do agree on so that it doesn't look like people can't make up their minds about anything because that just leaves the American public totally confused. Let's take the good science to try sort out where we don't agree and see what the evidence shows.

JIMMY MOORE: Well, I agree with that, Dr. Ornish, and I think where my concern and a lot of people who support low-carb are concerned is that there is a volume of science coming out in favor of the low-carb nutritional approach. I just did an interview with Dr. Jeff Volek from the University of Connecticut and he states that saturated fat is really becoming a non-issue when you lower the carbohydrate consumption. He's going to release the details of that study in 2007. What do you say to that?

DEAN ORNISH: What is he measuring?

JIMMY MOORE: Like I said, this is a very preliminary study. He's looking at the saturated fat and its effect on heart disease and how when you lower carbohydrates in combination with the saturated fat that it lessens that risk for heart disease.

DEAN ORNISH: Well is he measuring heart disease or is he measuring risk for heart disease? See that's the key distinction that I want to keep coming back to. In our studies, we've actually measured heart disease and we've found a direct correlation between the amount of saturated fat people eat and the amount of change in their coronary arteries. We're not just looking at risk factors, we're looking at the actual disease.

Now if you've found a study where he looked at the actual disease and this is what we found, I'd love to see it.

JIMMY MOORE: I think you're gonna see a lot of that kind of science come out in the next few years...

DEAN ORNISH: You know, if that's what it says then I'll be the first to change my mind, but at this time there's a wide body of evidence from animal studies and randomized controlled trials in humans not only from our work but from others that show if you actually look at underlying disease, this is what happens.

The only study that I'm aware of that actually looked at what happens to heart disease when people go on the Atkins diet was done by Dr. Richard Fleming from Omaha, Nebraska who looked at blood flow of people who went on the Atkins diet and he claimed that the blood flow actually worsened. The study was not a randomized trial and wasn't particularly well done, but it's the only data that we have that shows what happens to actual disease when people go on a low-carb diet.

The burden of proof when you are saying something that is counterintuitive as we did when we started 30 years ago when I started discussing that heart disease was reversible. The burden of proof was on us to show that it really could be and over the past 30 years we've produced some really hard studies to show it is true and we did it.

To me, I'm a scientist and I'm open to any new information that comes from well-designed studies. But the burden of proof to me before making those claims by low-carb advocates is to say, "Yeah, we've done the studies and here's the studies that show that the actual heart disease gets better" and not just looking at HDL levels or triglycerides.

JIMMY MOORE: I sincerely hope that we do see that in the next few years and that certainly we can come to a consensus on that. Let's shift gears a little bit and talk about the idea of "healthy living" as it relates to "moderation" and "balance" and maintaining control of what you eat, how much you exercise. Tell me what you think a "balanced" diet is and share how you would implement "moderation" into your life. How does that give you back control of your health?

DEAN ORNISH: Again, it's about a spectrum of choices, so you have to decide where on the spectrum you need to be. You can categorize foods from the least healthful to the most healthful. If you are trying to reverse heart disease or cancer, then you need to spend most of your time on the healthy end of the spectrum. For some that may sound extreme or not moderate at all. But my approach is not to say what needs to be, but what's true.

The data shows that if you are trying to reverse disease, that's what it takes. If you're simply trying to stay healthy and prevent disease, then you have a much broader spectrum of choices. I love chocolate, for example. So if I eat chocolate I try to get the best quality, highest fat chocolate that I can find. But I'll just have a little bit of it.

Moderation is not only what we eat, but also how we eat. If you eat with awareness and eat while you're paying attention, then it can become a form of meditation. You can eat small amounts of really rich foods and enjoy them without having a negative impact on your health as opposed to what often happens in our society where people eat while watching TV or talking with someone or reading a newspaper and you look down at the plate that's empty and you eat a whole meal and didn't even taste it. You get all of the calories and none of the pleasure.

JIMMY MOORE: Are there any foods that people shouldn't eat at all?

DEAN ORNISH: We need to get away from the idea of good foods and bad foods and more into area that some foods are more healthful than others. The whole language of behavioral change is that we tend to have this moralistic quality that we're eating bad foods, I cheated on my diet, I'm eating bad foods, so I must be a bad person. This only creates eating disorders that become self-fulfilling in a negative way or the fascist quality of manipulating people into changing their diet and lifestyle.

My attitude is to say, "Look, food is just food." Clearly some foods are more healthful for you than others, but that doesn't mean you should never indulge yourself. It just means being aware and if you're trying to reverse disease then you don't want to indulge very often. But if you're not, then you can indulge yourself one day and try to eat healthier the next day. Then it gets away from the idea of being on a diet or off a diet. Instead, this is just a way of eating and living that I can sustain because it's moving me generally in a healthier direction.

JIMMY MOORE: So basically a lifestyle change.

DEAN ORNISH: My work is not so much about lifestyle change, it's about transformation because we're all going to die it's just a question of when. To me the more important question is not in how long we live, but also how well we live. And so what we try to do in our work is try to help people use the experience or illness or suffering as a catalyst or a doorway to transforming their lives that go beyond just unclogging their arteries or bringing their blood pressure and cholesterol down.

While those are desirable goals, the real ailment of our culture isn't just heart disease or obesity, it's depression. More prescriptions are written for antidepressants than any other drugs right now. In our work, we're not just focused on behaviors like what you eat, what you're doing and whether you're smoking, we also focus on the deeper issue that underlies those behaviors.

My study patients tell me these poor behaviors are very adaptive because they help us get through the day. For many people just getting through the day is more important than worrying about living a few months longer or even a few years longer. So our program is much more comprehensive.

It tends to get reduced to the low-fat diet, but frankly diet to me is not nearly as interesting to as these other issues because they really deal with the profoundly human questions of values, meaning and rediscovering inner sources of peace and joy and well-being. It's helping people understand that ancient spiritual values of altruism, compassion, love and respect have a real health basis as well as providing a sense of meaning to people as they go through their daily lives.

It's much more than just a low-fat diet.

Don't forget to go back and read Part 1 and Part 2 of this interview and come back tomorrow to read the fourth and final segment of my interview with Dr. Dean Ornish.