Milk fats may cause bowel diseases, new study warns

A diet high in milk fats has been linked to serious stomach diseases, a new study warns. Milk fats are a type of fat found in many processed foods.

The study, in the journal Nature, found that Western-type diets high in these milk-derived saturated fats may cause inflammatory bowel diseases such as Crohn's and ulcerative colitis. These types of autoimmune diseases are much more common today than they were 50 years ago, and researchers think environmental factors such as diet are playing a role.

To conduct the study, the researchers fed mice either milk fat, lard or safflower oil. The researchers found that the mice that were fed the milk fat had rapidly developed a rare type of bacteria in their gut. That bacteria can trigger inflammation and inflammatory diseases, New Scientist reported. 

"Not only do the authors provide, what is in my opinion, the first credible explanation as to how Western diet contributes to the unusually high incidence in inflammatory bowel disease; they also suggest an effective means of dealing with such diseases, by simply reshaping the microbial balance of the gut," a researcher not involved in the study told BBC News. 

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Milk fat is a type of saturated fat that is created when the fat is separated from butter and turned into a powder-like substance, Bloomberg News reported. 

Even before this study, many researchers have long guessed that processed foods are contributing to an overall rise in immune disorders. “These immune disorders are all linked together. As we’re beginning to understand the basis of these diseases they have very common mechanism of actions that seem to cause them,” the study's lead author told Bloomberg. “They’re a combination of genetic susceptibility and changes in environment."