FOR generations of children who downed a daily bottle in the classroom, milk was once considered to be the ultimate health drink. However in recent years the benefits of consuming it and other dairy foods packed with essential vitamins and minerals have been offset by concerns that their saturated fat content raises the risk of certain cancers and heart disease.

Now the pendulum is swinging back in their favour with emerging evidence that the benefits of a dairy-rich diet may outweigh the pitfalls.

In the latest example Australian scientists have discovered that regularly consuming dairy foods may be good for the brain.

They studied memory function in volunteers who had four servings a day of skimmed milk or low-fat cheese and yogurt for a year and compared their performances with others who ate no more than one serving a day.

The results, published in the latest edition of the journal Appetite found working memory, which the brain uses to retain short-term information such as a phone number, improved after just a few months on the high-dairy diet.

The findings mirror those of American scientists earlier this year who found milk drinkers were five times less likely to fail a memory test than non-drinkers.

It’s not clear how milk bolsters the brain’s performance but it’s likely it has something to do with its rich content of nutrients such as calcium, potassium and magnesium.

“Milk and dairy foods are cheap and high in good-quality protein as well as calcium, phosphorous and magnesium,” says Catherine Collins, chief dietician at St George’s Hospital in London.

“They are extremely important for bone health and are absorbed more easily from milk and dairy goods than from sources such as vegetables.

“I think their popularity is increasing again,” she adds. It’s not just the brain that benefits as our guide to dairy goodness shows.

High blood pressure

Drinking skimmed milk every day can slash the risk of high blood pressure by up to 30 per cent.

Researchers from Wageningen University in the Netherlands studied 2,245 men and women aged 55 or over who had no signs of high blood pressure and monitored their dietary habits and health over a 10-year period. The results showed that in the first two years of the study the risk of developing high blood pressure was reduced almost 30 per cent in those consuming the most low-fat dairy goods such as skimmed milk and low-fat yogurts.

About 270,000 people a year in the UK suffer a heart attack while high blood pressure, which affects one in five people, is a major risk factor.

High-fat products such as butter or cheese did not have a protective effect although they did not increase the risks either.

Diabetes

Since Type Two diabetes is usually associated with poor diet and being overweight eating fatty dairy goods might seem an unlikely way of reducing the risk.

However research shows teenagers who regularly drink milk or eat butter, cheese and ice cream may actually be much less likely to get the condition later in life.

In fact a dairy-rich diet seems to cut a teenager’s diabetes risk by about 38 per cent according to researchers from Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, US.

They looked at everything from milkshakes and cream cheese to yogurt and butter and matched youngsters’ eating habits with the numbers who had later developed Type Two diabetes.

Teenage girls who consumed the most milk-based foods, six or more a day, were up to 38 per cent less likely to suffer diabetes than those who consumed them less than once a month.

It is possible that drinking milk in adolescence is simply a marker for a generally healthier lifestyle.

However scientists believe milk’s nutrients may also reduce insulin resistance which is a precursor to the development of diabetes.

Premature birth

A dairy-rich diet, especially one featuring lots of probiotic yogurts, could even reduce a pregnant woman’s risk of going into premature labour.

Norwegian scientists found a daily intake of “live” probiotic dairy foods such as yogurt cut the chances of an early delivery by up to 18 per cent.

Products that contain probiotic bacteria such as lactobacilli are thought to protect the baby in the womb from premature birth by reducing levels of harmful bacteria in the gut.

One theory is that with excessive levels of harmful bacteria in the body some may be passed into the uterus causing the amniotic sac in which the unborn baby is held to rupture.

One in 11 babies in the UK is born prematurely and three out of four deaths among young babies are in those born before 37 weeks. Those that survive are at increased risk of disability and illness throughout childhood and later life.

Probiotics are “friendly” bacteria that prevent bad bacteria from overcolonising the gut.

Tooth decay

Eating yogurt at least four times a week could cut a child’s risk of developing tooth decay by more than 20 per cent. Findings published in the Journal of Dentistry showed three-year-olds regularly fed yogurt were more than a fifth less likely to get cavities than those who ate it less than once a week.

However butter, cheese and milk appeared to have no major benefit. One theory is that yogurt contains proteins that “bind” to the surface of teeth and seal them against attack from harmful acids.

This seal means the calcium and phosphate which make up tooth enamel are not broken down over time.

The research carried out by experts at Fukuoka University and the University of Tokyo in Japan supports earlier work by Australian scientists who exposed extracted teeth to yogurt and found it kept decay at bay.

Allergies

For years scientists have been puzzled by the fact the families of farmers tend to suffer fewer allergies than the rest of the population.

One study has suggested the answer could be drinking an occasional glass of “raw” milk. That is milk that has not been pasteurised.

Researchers at the University of London analysed the diet and health of 4,700 primary schoolchildren in Shropshire and compared rural families with those who live in towns and cities.

Just a couple of glasses a week of raw milk were enough to slash a child’s chances of getting eczema by almost 40 per cent and hay fever by 10 per cent.

Blood tests revealed it more than halved levels of histamine, a chemical pumped out by cells in response to an allergen.

Scientists believe raw milk contains a cocktail of different bacteria that helps to prime the immune system against allergy-related conditions.

However findings are controversial because raw milk is also a source of potentially fatal food-poisoning bugs. It was banned from sale in Scotland 20 years ago. Nevertheless it is still allowed to be sold by farmers in England and Wales with labels that clearly warn of the risks from potentially deadly organisms such as E.coli and campylobacter.

Bladder cancer

A daily helping of yogurt may even be the secret to warding off bladder cancer.

Scientists at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute found that two servings every day cut the chances of the disease by 45 per cent in women and by 36 per cent in men.

About 10,000 people a year in the UK are diagnosed with cancer of the bladder and the annual death toll is just under 5,000.

Smoking is the leading cause of the disease and the first sign is usually blood in the urine or pain when going to the toilet.

Previous studies have suggested that yogurt may also reduce the risk of colon cancer by dampening down inflammation that allows cancer cells to flourish.

Some scientists think that it may be because lactic acid and bacteria that are found in yogurt have powerful disease-fighting qualities that can keep the cancer at bay.