Good news for dairy lovers: eating cheese, milk and yoghurt does not increase your chances of suffering a heart attack or stroke - even if you consume the full-fat forms of them.
Experts from an international team found that the old view of dairy being bad for your health is a "misconception [and] mistaken belief."
The report, published in the European Journal of Epidemiology, states: "This meta-analysis showed there were no associations between total dairy, high- and low-fat dairy, milk and the health outcomes including all-cause mortality, coronary heart disease or cardiovascular disease."
One researcher, Ian Givens, a professor of food chain nutrition at Reading University, said: "There's quite a widespread but mistaken belief among the public that dairy products in general can be bad for you, but that's a misconception. While it is a widely held belief, our research shows that that's wrong.
"There's been a lot of publicity over the last five to 10 years about how saturated fats increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and a belief has grown up that they must increase the risk, but they don't."
Still, government health advisers have asked customers to continue purchasing the low-fat versions of dairy products when they can.
A spokesman for Public Health England said that although dairy products form an important part of a healthy balanced diet, they contain a lot of fat and salt. "We're all consuming too much of both," he explained, adding that this consumption is "increasing our risk of heart disease."
He continued: "We recommend choosing lower-fat varieties of milk and dairy products or eating smaller amounts to reduce saturated fat and salt in the diet."
Ian Givens, and colleagues from Reading, Denmark and the Netherlands, analysed 29 studies involving 938,465 participants from around the world undertaken over the last 35 years.
"No associations were found for total (high-fat/low-fat) dairy and milk with the health outcomes of mortality, CHD or CVD," they said.
What's more, they said fermented dairy products may actually slightly lower the risk of suffering a heart attack or stroke.
So eat up.
Featured Image Credit: PA