Effects of Whole Milk and Full‐Fat Dairy Products on Blood Pressure in Patients with Elevated Blood Pressure

Abstract

We have previously demonstrated that the solitary addition of nonfat dairy products to the normal routine diet was capable of lowering blood pressure. Currently, it is not known if whole milk and full‐fat dairy products could exert similar effects as most of the available cohort studies reported no association between full‐fat dairy products and blood pressure. Therefore, the purpose of the study was to determine the efficacy of conventional full‐fat dairy products as part of the normal routine diet for reducing blood pressure in otherwise healthy adults with elevated blood pressure. After a 2‐week run‐in period, 35 subjects (13 men and 22 women) with pre‐ or stage I hypertension underwent a randomized controlled cross‐over dietary intervention trial encompassing 4 servings of dairy (whole milk, cheese, or yogurt) per day and 4 weeks of an isocaloric non‐dairy control (coconut milk, orange juice, peanuts, and applesauce) per day. All the dairy products as well as isocaloric non‐dairy products were provided in daily packages by the investigators. Two weeks of washout period was inserted between the dietary conditions. Body weight did not change throughout the experimental period. Casual (office) systolic blood pressure decreased slightly but significantly in both the dairy (135±1 vs. 131±2 mmHg) and the control (136±2 vs.133±2 mmHg) conditions. There were no significant changes in casual diastolic or mean blood pressure. Ambulatory (24 hour) systolic blood pressure did not change significantly in both dairy (131±2 vs. 130±2 mmHg) and control (131±3 vs. 129±2 mmHg) conditions. Similarly, daytime and nighttime blood pressure did not change significantly in both conditions. These data suggest that unlike non‐fat milk and non‐fat dairy products, whole milk and full‐fat dairy products added to the normal routine diet did not exert hypotensive effects in patients with elevated blood pressure.Support or Funding InformationSupported by the Dairy Research Institute