Drinking Too Much Milk Can Be Dangerous For Women, Study Warns

According to research carried out at Uppsala University in Sweden, drinking more than 300 ml of cow's milk a day can result in higher rates of ischemic heart disease and, more specifically, myocardial infarction in women, but not in men.

For the study, published in BMC Medicine, the scientists analyzed two large studies involving more than 100,000 individuals. Everyone filled in a questionnaire about their lifestyle and diet. 

They concluded that specifically, people who consumed the equivalent of a large latte every day throughout the study had a 5% higher risk of coronary heart disease, including heart failure, heart attacks and strokes.

They also found that “the more milk the women drank, the more their heart risk increased,” the researchers explain, quoted in the DailyMail. For example, women who drank 600 ml of milk a day increased their risk by 12% and by 21% when they drank 800 ml. 

Unfortunately, the scientists revealed that the results were similar for different types of milk, including full-fat, semi-skimmed and skimmed. They therefore advised that replacing some milk in the diet with fermented dairy products, such as yogurt, could mitigate some of the risks. 

Researchers have the theory that this relationship exists because “the sugars in milk, called lactose, are capable of triggering inflammation in the body's cells over time, putting extra pressure on the body's cells”.