Buttermilk

Studies in people

• Benefit

  Blood pressure³

  Drinking buttermilk for four weeks slightly lowered blood pressure in people with normal blood pressure.

• Benefit

  Blood cholesterol levels⁴

  In people, drinking buttermilk lowered blood cholesterol and triglycerides, possibly by blocking how much cholesterol the gut absorbs.

• Open question

  Eye health and cholesterol⁵

  Drinking buttermilk with lutein-rich egg yolks for a year raised lutein levels but did not change cholesterol.

• Concern

  Cholesterol levels in women⁶

  In women, eating an extra egg daily raised cholesterol, but buttermilk with egg yolk raised it less.

Animal and lab studies only

• Benefit

  Gut infection defence¹⁰

  In animal studies, buttermilk helped rats fight off Listeria gut infection, though scientists don't yet know which part of buttermilk does this.

How it’s made and used

• Cheese texture and flavour⁷

  Adding buttermilk to cheese milk made softer cheese with off-flavours, while buttermilk powder changed flavour little.

• Protein and amino acids⁸

  Buttermilk has less of the amino acids your body needs than skim milk does.

• Fat burning in the body⁹

  In lab studies, some buttermilk samples changed how brown fat cells grew and made a heat protein.

The signal at the top counts the findings in people and in animal and lab studies. A concern in studies of people outranks animal and lab studies, and “No concerns” needs at least one finding in people. When most findings in people point one way, the page leans that way (“Mostly”), and every finding is still shown. Findings whose study type is not stated are shown but not counted. This page is a reference, not medical advice. It describes what regulators and published research say. Talk to a doctor or dietitian about your own diet.