From The Straits Times    |

Good news for all the healthy eaters out there – chewing on cheese might actually be good for you. Sound too good to be true? Not according to some new research.

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Image: Cover Media 

For a long while the French diet has been something of a mystery, with scientists wondering why people from the country have a relatively low rate of heart disease even though saturated fat and wine are big there. Initially it was thought lifestyle factors might be why, but it’s now been suggested that cheese is the big helper.

Researchers from Aarhus University in Denmark have put dairy products under the microscope, focusing on why they might be good for people rather than the bad effects they can cause.

It’s been suggested that cheese helped reduce bad cholesterol, especially when it was compared to the impact something with the same fat content, like butter, has.

Hanne Bertram and her team investigated the digestion of cheese and found that people who eat it have more of the compound butyrate in their waste. It’s made by bacteria in the gut and it has been linked to a reduction in cholesterol.

“Cheese was associated with a different metabolic response when compared with milk consumption,” Hanne wrote in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

“However, further studies are needed to explore the exact mechanisms linking cheese consumption, stimulation of gut bacteria and cholesterol.”

It’s a good week for cheese, as another study has found people who munch on toasted sandwiches stuffed with it tend to have more sex than those who don’t.

4,600 people were questioned about the life between the sheets and it was discovered that 73 per cent of people who eat cheese toasties get intimate at least once a month. However, the figure was 63 per cent for those who don’t indulge their dairy cravings.

Need more reason to hit the fridge? Cheese fans also tend to be more charitable and travel more than those who steer clear, according to US dating site Skout. — COVER MEDIA