Overview
- An analysis in Neurology of 27,670 adults followed for about 25 years found a 13% lower all-cause dementia risk with at least 50 g/day of high-fat cheese and a 16% lower risk with at least 20 g/day of high-fat cream.
- The strongest signal was for vascular dementia, where higher high-fat cheese intake was associated with a 29% lower risk after adjustments.
- A lower Alzheimer’s risk was observed only among participants without the APOE e4 gene variant, a known genetic risk factor.
- No association was found for low-fat dairy, milk, butter, or fermented milk products including yogurt, kefir, and buttermilk.
- Researchers and independent experts highlighted limitations such as baseline self-reported diet, healthier cardiometabolic profiles among higher cheese consumers, and Swedish eating habits that may limit generalizability.