London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Tuesday, Jul 22, 2025

Drinking more milk could help ageing brains stay healthy, study says

Drinking more milk could help ageing brains stay healthy, study says

As a society, we tend to think of milk as a drink that’s best enjoyed by kids.

And that’s not technically wrong: cow’s milk has the best nutritional benefits for growing children and, once kids grow into adults, they pretty much lose the capacity to digest the dairy drink properly.

There’s also a particular social awkwardness linked to drinking milk as adults instead of, say, a cup of tea, coffee or even a can of Coke.

But older adults might have more to gain from drinking milk than we think, according to a new study published by the journal Frontiers in Nutrition.

The research, conducted by a team of scientists at the University of Kansas (KU) Medical Center in the US, found that older adults who drink three cups of dairy milk every day have higher levels of a powerful antioxidant which can protect the brain from ageing and ageing-related diseases.

This antioxidant, called glutathione, or GSH, has the power to prevent our brain from being “corroded” by free radicals and other oxidants which are normally released when our brain converts nutrients into energy.

Even though it sounds horrifying, this is a natural process which the KU scientists describe as similar to “an old car that rusts” and which experts have linked to many neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

As we age, levels of GHS in our brain decrease, and we gradually lose this ally protecting our brain.


What did the study find?


The scientists analysed 73 adults aged between 60 and 89 who typically consumed less than 1.5 servings of dairy per day and split them into two groups: one, whose milk intake did not change, and another who was asked to increase their milk consumption to three cups a day (of low-fat 1 per cent milk, specifically) for three months.

At the end of the experiment, scientists found that the group who drank three cups of dairy milk a day had experienced an average 5 per cent increase in GSH levels in their brains, and a 7 per cent increase of the antioxidant in the parietal region of their brains, while the group who had kept drinking less milk had experienced no change at all.

“It's exciting that something as simple as drinking milk can increase GSH because it’s not a drug, it’s just a simple food,” said Dr Debra Sullivan, professor and chair of the Department of Dietetics and Nutrition in the School of Health Professions at KU Medical Center and one of the authors on the study.

“And three cups a day is actually what is recommended by the US Dietary Guidelines”.


How much milk do we normally consume?


Three cups a day sounds like an awful lot of milk - even for the US, a country which has traditionally made drinking milk part of American life.

But consumption of milk, which peaked in 1945 in the US, has actually been declining in the country since the 1970s, according to data from the US Department of Agriculture, and the countries which consume the most dairy milk are now, in fact, in Europe.

According to World Population Review, the countries which consume the most milk in the world are Finland (430.76 kg/capita), Montenegro (349.21 kg/capita), the Netherlands (341.47 kg/capita), Sweden (341.23 kg/capita), Switzerland (318.69 kg/capita), Albania (303.72 kg/capita), Lithuania (295.46 kg/capita), Ireland (291.86 kg/capita), Kazakhstan (288.12 kg/capita) and Estonia (284.65 kg/capita).

It’s not by chance that there are so many consumers of milk in Europe: the dairy sector is the second-largest agricultural sector in the European Union.


Should we all start drinking more milk?


It’s important to note, at this point, that the KU study received funding by the US National Dairy Council, although researchers said they were not given any input or direction in their study.

In fact, the researchers said they were actually quite surprised by the study’s results.

“I was thinking fruits and vegetables would be highly correlated with antioxidants in the brain,” said study’s author In-Young Choi.

“But instead it was dairy, and among the dairy foods, it was milk. That was really surprising”.

So should we all start drinking more milk? The answer might be a bit more complicated than the American study would initially seem to suggest.

Dairy is often recommended to older people, as the high content of calcium in cow’s milk and other products is said to fortify bones and keep them healthy.

But studies have also found an increased risk of heart-related diseases in people consuming dairy against those sticking to a vegan diet and even an increased risk of bone fractures and mortality in relation to excessive milk consumption.

While plant-based alternatives can’t normally give you the same nutrients dairy milk can, you can easily find those in other vegan food, or reach for fortified plant-based milk on the supermarket’s shelf.

KU researchers said that more research is needed to figure out why exactly milk consumption was found to increase GSH levels in the brain, whether this improves brain functions and whether the level of fat in milk makes a difference at all.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
US Treasury Secretary Calls for Institutional Review of Federal Reserve Amid AI‑Driven Growth Expectations
UK Government Considers Dropping Demand for Apple Encryption Backdoor
Severe Flooding in South Korea Claims Lives Amid Ongoing Rescue Operations
Japanese Man Discovers Family Connection Through DNA Testing After Decades of Separation
Russia Signals Openness to Ukraine Peace Talks Amid Escalating Drone Warfare
Switzerland Implements Ban on Mammography Screening
Japanese Prime Minister Vows to Stay After Coalition Loses Upper House Majority
Pogacar Extends Dominance with Stage Fifteen Triumph at Tour de France
CEO Resigns Amid Controversy Over Relationship with HR Executive
Man Dies After Being Pulled Into MRI Machine Due to Metal Chain in New York Clinic
NVIDIA Achieves $4 Trillion Valuation Amid AI Demand
US Revokes Visas of Brazilian Corrupted Judges Amid Fake Bolsonaro Investigation
U.S. Congress Approves Rescissions Act Cutting Federal Funding for NPR and PBS
North Korea Restricts Foreign Tourist Access to New Seaside Resort
Brazil's Supreme Court Imposes Radical Restrictions on Former President Bolsonaro
Centrist Criticism of von der Leyen Resurfaces as she Survives EU Confidence Vote
Judge Criticizes DOJ Over Secrecy in Dropping Charges Against Gang Leader
Apple Closes $16.5 Billion Tax Dispute With Ireland
Von der Leyen Faces Setback Over €2 Trillion EU Budget Proposal
UK and Germany Collaborate on Global Military Equipment Sales
Trump Plans Over 10% Tariffs on African and Caribbean Nations
Flying Taxi CEO Reclaims Billionaire Status After Stock Surge
Epstein Files Deepen Republican Party Divide
Zuckerberg Faces $8 Billion Privacy Lawsuit From Meta Shareholders
FIFA Pressured to Rethink World Cup Calendar Due to Climate Change
SpaceX Nears $400 Billion Valuation With New Share Sale
Microsoft, US Lab to Use AI for Faster Nuclear Plant Licensing
Trump Walks Back Talk of Firing Fed Chair Jerome Powell
Zelensky Reshuffles Cabinet to Win Support at Home and in Washington
"Can You Hit Moscow?" Trump Asked Zelensky To Make Putin "Feel The Pain"
Irish Tech Worker Detained 100 days by US Authorities for Overstaying Visa
Dimon Warns on Fed Independence as Trump Administration Eyes Powell’s Succession
Church of England Removes 1991 Sexuality Guidelines from Clergy Selection
Superman Franchise Achieves Success with Latest Release
Hungary's Viktor Orban Rejects Agreements on Illegal Migration
Jeff Bezos Considers Purchasing Condé Nast as a Wedding Gift
Ghislaine Maxwell Says She’s Ready to Testify Before Congress on Epstein’s Criminal Empire
Bal des Pompiers: A Celebration of Community and Firefighter Culture in France
FBI Chief Kash Patel Denies Resignation Speculations Amid Epstein List Controversy
Air India Pilot’s Mental Health Records Under Scrutiny
Google Secures Windsurf AI Coding Team in $2.4 Billion Licence Deal
Jamie Dimon Warns Europe Is Losing Global Competitiveness and Flags Market Complacency
South African Police Minister Suspended Amid Organised Crime Allegations
Nvidia CEO Claims Chinese Military Reluctance to Use US AI Technology
Hong Kong Advances Digital Asset Strategy to Address Economic Challenges
Australia Rules Out Pre‑commitment of Troops, Reinforces Defence Posture Amid US‑China Tensions
Martha Wells Says Humanity Still Far from True Artificial Intelligence
Nvidia Becomes World’s First Four‑Trillion‑Dollar Company Amid AI Boom
U.S. Resumes Deportations to Third Countries After Supreme Court Ruling
Excavation Begins at Site of Mass Grave for Children at Former Irish Institution
×