While current dietary guidance recommends limiting intakes of saturated fats, most fail to consider that saturated fats from different food sources may have different health effects.

A recent prospective cohort study involving 2391 participants evaluated the associations of saturated fats from dairy and nondairy sources with body fat, inflammatory biomarkers, and lipid concentrations.[1] Females, in the highest quintile of dairy-derived saturated fat, had lower body mass index and percentage fat mass.[1] Among males, dairy-derived saturated fat intakes were inversely associated with markers of inflammation and blood lipid dysfunction.[1] On the other hand, nondairy saturated fats intakes were not associated with these cardiometabolic outcomes.[1]

[1] Yuan, Mengjie, Singer, Martha R, Pickering, Richard T & Moore, Lynn L. 2022. Saturated fat from dairy sources is associated with lower cardiometabolic risk in the Framingham Offspring Study. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition doi: 10.1093/ajcn/nqac224. 12/30/2022