Cheese Consumption Could Lower Your Risk of Dementia

According to Statista, cheese consumption is rising in America, and the average person now eats 41.8 pounds of cheese a year — likely too much cheese, per a nutritionist in The Harvard Gazette last year (though he didn’t explain why other than that we may get more than enough calcium). Even if you reduce your cheese intake, though, a new study out of Japan suggests it would be a mistake to cut it out entirely.

In October, researchers published findings in the journal Nutrients that suggest eating cheese at least once a week was associated with a slightly lower risk of developing dementia over a three-year period.

To reach this conclusion, the team analyzed data from nearly 8,000 adults who were part of the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study, which linked diet and health surveys that were collected between 2019 and 2022 to track the development of dementia. Specifically, the researchers in the cheese study tracked individuals aged 65 and older who were living independently and had no prior diagnosis of dementia. 

The researchers then compared two groups of participants: those who reported eating cheese weekly with those who rarely or never ate it. The majority of participants who noted they consumed cheese said they eat it about once or twice a week (with processed cheese being the most common type consumed). This, the authors noted, aligns with Japan’s overall cheese consumption statistics, with people, on average, consuming just under six pounds of cheese per year. 

After comparing the groups, the researchers found a small but statistically significant: According to the findings, about 3.4% of cheese eaters were diagnosed with dementia over three years, compared to 4.5% of those who didn’t eat cheese, which works out to about 11 fewer cases for every 1,000 people. That means that people who ate cheese weekly had about a 24% lower risk of developing dementia.

The authors stated that they didn’t explore why cheese may be linked to brain health; however, they added that it could be due to the nutrients within the dairy product. That’s because, they stated, cheese can be a source of vitamin K2, antioxidants like selenium, and bioactive peptides, all of which have been shown to reduce inflammation, assist human metabolism, and improve vascular health. Want even more benefits? Go with a fermented cheese such as Gouda and Stilton — the researchers noted these can also contain probiotics, which some research suggests may influence the gut-brain relationship. 

The authors also want you to take their work with a grain of salt, as it was an observational study, meaning they cannot conclude cause and effect from eating cheese. They also did not measure portion sizes or other factors, including overall lifestyle habits, which could have influenced the results. Still, they’ve provided hope that a nibble of cheese straight from the fridge every once in a while is really brain food.