Overview
- Researchers tracked 27,670 adults in Sweden, average age 58 at baseline, for about 25 years, during which 3,208 developed dementia.
- Compared with low intake, eating at least 50 g/day of high-fat cheese was associated with a 13% lower risk of all-cause dementia and a 29% lower risk of vascular dementia.
- Consuming 20 g/day or more of high-fat cream was linked to a 16% lower risk of dementia.
- A reduced risk of Alzheimer’s disease appeared only among participants who did not carry the APOE e4 gene variant.
- No associations were found for low-fat cheese or cream, milk, butter, or fermented dairy; experts stress the observational design, single baseline diet measure, possible confounding, and limited generalisability from Swedish eating patterns.