The biological age of the body of adults who consume skim or 1 percent fat milk increases more slowly than that of their counterparts who consume 2 percent or whole milk, a new study revealed.
Professor Larry Tucker of Brigham Young University in Utah states the length of the so-called telomeres, as well as the frequency of milk consumption (daily, weekly or less) and the fat content of the milk consumed (whole milk, 2 percent, 1 percent, or skimmed milk) with the participation of 5,834 American adults, it was read on the ScienceDaily science and information portal.
The telomere is the macromolecule that “packages” the DNA, it is located at the end of the chromosome and its task is to protects the chromosome and prevents genetic information from being damaged during cell division. As a person ages, telomeres shorten and their structure weakens.
According to a study published in the journal Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity the more high-fat milk a person drinks, the shorter their telomeres.
According to the study, compared to adults who drank 1 percent fat milk, the telomeres of those who drank 2 percent milk were 69 base pairs shorter, which is more than four years extra in the body’s biological age. The telomeres of adults consuming whole milk were 145 base pairs shorter, than adults consuming skimmed milk.
People included in the study almost half drink milk daily, a quarter at least once a week. Almost a third of them consume whole milk, another 30 percent consume 2 percent fat, 10 percent consume 1 percent fat, and 17 percent skim milk. Roughly 13 percent of them do not drink cow’s milk.
Tucker also showed that non-milk drinkers have shorter telomeres than low-fat milk drinkers.
Source: www.patikamagazin.hu
