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by Beth Howard
Updated September 28, 2022
Boosting your dairy intake has well-known benefits for your bones. But data from the University of Kansas Medical Center suggests it may also boost your brainpower, reducing your risk for cognitive decline.
In the study, funded by the National Institutes of Health with support from what is now the National Dairy Council and published in the February 2015 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, adults ages 60 to 85 were asked to keep food diaries for a week. Afterward they had MRI tests to measure brain levels of a substance called glutathione. This powerful antioxidant protects your gray matter from oxidative stress and nerve cell damage. After crunching the numbers, researchers found that participants who had consumed more milk had higher levels of glutathione in their brains, which may lower their risk for Alzheimer's disease.
Researchers aren't yet sure how dairy products provide these benefits. One explanation is milk's high quantities of cysteine, an amino acid that serves as a key building block for producing glutathione, says lead study author In-Young Choi, an associate professor of neurology at the university.
As for the optimal amount of dairy in your diet, the USDA currently recommends three daily servings for adult men and women for good health. In fact, the closer to these guidelines seniors in the study came, the higher the levels of glutathione in their brains.
Other foods provide cysteine, helping to spur glutathione production, Choi says, but in much lower quantities. "From the data analysis of all the foods our participants consumed, dairy foods stand out among all in relation to high glutathione levels," she says. In other words, it's never too late to sport a milk mustache.
“Dairy intake is associated with brain glutathione concentration in older adults,” The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, December 2014. In this study, researchers measured the levels of cerebral glutathione in 60 healthy older adults (60 to 83) who consumed different levels of dairy. Results showed that high levels of cerebral glutathione was associated with higher dairy intake. Read the full study.