I’m a little surprised people are still studying this, since it’s been studied before with the same results:
After 12 weeks, researchers found no meaningful differences in weight gain, body composition, or cholesterol levels between people following the low-dairy diet and those eating three servings of dairy each day. Participants consuming more dairy, however, showed improvements in blood pressure and consumed more calcium, protein, and vitamin D.
“Those that had three servings of dairy didn’t have adverse levels of blood cholesterol or lipids or evidence of insulin resistance,” says Anderson.
Source: For decades, we were told to choose low-fat dairy. New research says otherwise | ScienceDaily
I would argue that that full-fat dairy is “minimally processed.” (Mixing the milk of multiple cows, pasteurizing, and homogenizing, means it’s not unprocessed.) I argue that skimming off half (or nearly all) of the fat crosses the bar to “processed,” but even if you don’t draw that line where I do, it’s still more processed. And just on general principles, I generally assume that less-processed food is better than more-processed food.
But with full-fat dairy you don’t have to go by general principles. We have multiple studies over years and years that show unequivocally that it’s healthier food.
And, I guess, now we have another.