The recently released update, or really complete overhaul, of the dietary guidelines for Americans,

included a rather full-throated endorsement of full-fat dairy products.

At the same time, they're still advising us to limit our saturated fat intake to 10% of calories,

and the resulting confusion gives rise to questions such as the one that

prompted today's episode. Does the saturated fat in dairy still count?

Hello there. You are listening to the Nutrition Diva podcast, a show where we take a closer

look at nutrition news, research, and trends to help you make sense of all the information

that's out there.

I'm your host, Monica Reinagle, and today's episode was suggested by Julie, who wrote,

I keep hearing that full-fat fermented dairy does not raise cholesterol

or LDL. How firm is the current science on this? I think this question is particularly timely

in the wake of the recently released dietary guidelines for Americans, which, on the one hand, continue

to advise us to limit saturated fat to no more than 10% of our calories, but on the other

hand, they emphasize full-fat dairy, which is a meaningful source of saturated fat.

This mixed messaging may lead some to conclude that as long as it

comes from quote-unquote real foods, this is a term that's invoked in the guidelines, but not well-defined,

then the saturated fat somehow doesn't count in the same way, because otherwise doesn't quite work.

If I were to follow the recommendations to consume three servings of full-fat dairy products,

that would pretty much exhaust my saturated fat budget for the entire day.

But that's before I've included any of the meat, butter, and beef tallow that they

emphasize in their examples of healthy, real foods. So let's take a closer look at this,

shall we? There are a few different angles to explore. So we'll start with a closer look at the

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