Can Cheese Lower Dementia Risk?

Credit: Adobe Stock/Anatoly Repin

A higher intake of high-fat cheese and cream was linked to a lower risk of dementia, according to findings published in Neurology.

Dementia affects millions of people worldwide, and diet is one area researchers are exploring to understand potential ways to reduce risk. Dairy foods are a common part of many diets, but past studies have shown mixed results on whether they protect against or increase dementia risk. One possible reason for the confusion is that dairy products vary widely in fat content.

“For decades, the debate over high-fat versus low-fat diets has shaped health advice, sometimes even categorizing cheese as an unhealthy food to limit,” said investigator Emily Sonestedt, Ph.D., of Lund University, Sweden. “Our study found that some high-fat dairy products may actually lower the risk of dementia, challenging some long-held assumptions about fat and brain health.”

This study aimed to examine whether high-fat and low-fat dairy products are linked differently to the risk of developing dementia.

How the Study Was Conducted

The team of investigators analyzed data from the Malmö Diet and Cancer cohort in Sweden, a large group of adults who provided detailed dietary information between 1991 and 1996.

Participants recorded what they ate using a combination of a seven-day food diary, food frequency questionnaire and in-person dietary interview. Dementia diagnoses were tracked through national health registers for nearly 25 years. The study examined overall dementia risk, as well as Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia.

Who Was Included

The study followed 27,670 adults with an average starting age of 58 years. About 61% of participants were women. Over a median follow-up of 25 years, 3,208 participants were diagnosed with dementia, providing a large data set to examine long-term dietary patterns and brain health outcomes.

Key Findings

People who consumed higher amounts of high-fat cheese — defined as cheese with more than 20% fat — had a lower risk of developing all-cause dementia compared with those who ate very little. High-fat cheese intake was also linked to a notably lower risk of vascular dementia. In addition, eating high-fat cream was associated with a reduced risk (16%) of all-cause dementia, as well as both Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia.

The protective association between high-fat cheese and Alzheimer’s disease was seen primarily in people who did not carry the APOE ε4 gene variant, a genetic factor known to increase dementia risk. This suggests that genetics may influence how certain foods affect brain health.

Low-fat cheese, low-fat cream, milk (both high-fat and low-fat), fermented milk products and butter showed no clear association with dementia risk. These findings suggest that not all dairy products affect brain health in the same way, and fat content may play an important role.

Because this was an observational study, it cannot prove that high-fat dairy directly reduces dementia risk. Other lifestyle or dietary factors may also contribute to the findings. The results should be viewed as hypothesis-generating and not as dietary recommendations.

“These findings suggest that when it comes to brain health not all dairy is equal,” said Sonestedt. “While eating more high-fat cheese and cream was linked to a reduced risk of dementia, other dairy products and low-fat alternatives did not show the same effect. More research is needed to confirm our study results and further explore whether consuming certain high-fat dairy truly offers some level of protection for the brain.”