Drinking a pint of milk a day keeps your heart healthy

While dairy products have long been seen as bad for the health, their study claims they can actually help protect against a range of serious conditions, including heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes.

It found regular consumption of any type of milk, yoghurt or cheese halves the chances of developing metabolic syndrome, which is thought to affect up to a quarter of the UK population.

The condition – sometimes called insulin resistance – affects the body's metabolism by increasing cholesterol, blood glucose levels, body fat and blood pressure.

Sufferers have almost double the risk of coronary artery disease and four times the risk of diabetes than those without. They are also almost 50 per cent more likely to die early.

The findings are the latest to emerge from a 25-year study of 2,400 men aged between 45 and 59. Head researcher Professor PeterElwood, of Cardiff University, said milk consumption has plummeted over the last 25 years amid concerns about the effect its high saturated fat content may have on health and the heart.

Growing evidence suggests this idea is false, he added.

"We are reviewing worldwide studies on the link between dairy consumption and effects on vascular disease, including rates of heart disease and stroke, and there is no doubt in my mind of the benefits," he said.

"The evidence shows a very powerful effect that is totally against public perception that milk and other dairy products are bad for your heart.

"This is the latest in over 300 publications from this study and they all point in the same direction. There isalso evidence the same effect is found in women."

One in six who took part in the Caerphilly Prospective Study was diagnosed with metabolic syndrome.

All the men filled in a food questionnaire, kept weekly food diaries, and recorded the amount of dairy products they ate.

Those who regularly drank milk and ate dairy products were far less likely to have the syndrome than those who drank and ate little or none.

They were also 62 per cent less likely to have the syndrome if they drank a pint or more of milk a day, and 56 per cent less likely if they regularly ate other dairy foods.

The more dairy products a man consumed, the less likely he was to suffer from symptoms of the condition, which includes excess fat around the stomach.

Professor Elwood said that even after taking into account other factors – such as the drop in heart disease over the same period – the reduction could still be partly attributed to dairy intake.