Health Misinformation and Dairy Products

MHST 631: Unit 4, Week 7

One of the reasons that motivated me to study human nutrition in university was being a teenager unsure of what really was, or was not, "healthy". I now have a much more comprehensive understanding that to be healthy is not a simple equation of eat this, not that. But in high school, as a young, female athlete, I felt confused and bombarded with seemingly conflicting information on what a healthy diet looked like. At that time social media was just beginning to take off, so most health information came from television, magazines, friends, family or healthcare professionals during an appointment. I felt confused at that time, and that was before social media was prolific with health information and misinformation! Health misinformation is defined as “the spread of false information with the intent to mislead” (World Health Organization, 2024, para. 1), and although it may not be intentional be the sender of the misinformation, it can still have negative impacts (World Health Organization, 2020).

The Facts about Full-Fat Dairy: No Need for Fear Mongering.

Again, being a child of the 90's, this was the age of fearing fat in food. During this decade there was a surging trend of "fat-free" foods as a strategy to lose weight and be healthy (Gershon, 2018). This notion of fat-free dairy still lingers on; as I found a 2022 published blog post promoting the consumption of low or fat-free dairy (Rae, 2022). The idea that fat-free dairy has superior health benefits to full-fat fairy products, has been debunked by food scientists. In fact, there is research showing that consumption of full-fat dairy products, such as milk, cheese and yogourt, does not lead to obesity or contribute to type II diabetes (Soltani & Vafa, 2017), and that it may actually have a protective effect on cardiometabolic factors (Hirahatake, 2020).

The harms that come from health misinformation vary, depending on the consequences of individuals to follow that information. From my perspective, the consequences of misinformation around the consumption of full-fat versus fat-free dairy can be lower compared to other topics. However, instilling an unnecessary fear of full-fat foods can contribute to disorder eating patterns (Drewnowski, 1988). As well by opting to only consume fat-free foods, an individual may be unintentionally missing out on potential health benefits to consuming dairy fat.

Kylie

References

Drewnowski, A., Pierce, B., & Halmi, K. A. (1988). Fat aversion in eating disorders. Appetite, 10(2), 119–131. https://doi.org/10.1016/0195-6663(88)90063-3

Gershon, L. (2018, August 13). How America Got Sold on Low-Fat Food. JSTOR Daily. https://daily.jstor.org/how-america-got-sold-on-low-fat-food/

Hirahatake, K. M., Bruno, R. S., Bolling, B. W., Blesso, C., Alexander, L. M., & Adams, S. H. (2020). Dairy Foods and Dairy Fats: New Perspectives on Pathways Implicated in Cardiometabolic Health. Advances in Nutrition, 11(2), 266–279. https://doi.org/10.1093/advances/nmz105

Margesh, R. (2022, December 21). Embrace Low Fat Dairy Products & Keep Diseases Outside the Door. Swadeshi VIP. Pure for Sure. https://swadeshivip.com/blog/embrace-low-fat-dairy-products-keep-diseases-outside-the-door/?srsltid=AfmBOooyNYr7arF6p21AZkiND7_qIGd_ln509yUORxMmgaI4hVdrFlLb

Soltani, S., & Vafa, M. (2017). The dairy fat paradox: Whole dairy products may be healthier than we thought. Medical Journal of the Islamic Republic of Iran, 31, 110. https://doi.org/10.14196/mjiri.31.110

World Health Organization. (2024, February 6). Disinformation and public health. https://www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/disinformation-and-public-health