Enjoying full-fat milk, yogurt, cheese and butter is unlikely to send people to an early grave, according to new research, which found no significant link between dairy fats, and heart disease and stroke. Certain types of dairy fat may even help guard against having a severe stroke.

In the study Intrdoduction they cite several sources regarding the link between these biomarkers and consumption of dairy fats:

Circulating pentadecanoic (15:0), heptadecanoic (17:0) and trans-palmitoleic (trans-16:1n–7) acids each correlate with self-reported dairy consumption (r ∼ 0.7 based on 24-h recalls or 7-d food records) (9–11) and are significantly increased in response to dairy or whole-fat dairy consumption in controlled trials (12, 13).

They address your other concern regarding the source of the fat, along with other possible confounding factors, under "potential limitations":

Although the use of biomarkers has several advantages, circulating fatty acid measures may reflect both dietary intake and metabolism and do not distinguish between different food sources of dairy fat. In addition, 3 serial fatty acid measures included in our analysis may not fully capture potential changes in dairy fat intake over 22 y of follow up. Evidence from animal studies suggests that pentadecanoic acid and heptadecanoic acid may be endogenously produced by elongation of propionic acid (3:0) and heptanoic acid (7:0) (58, 66), or by α-oxidation of stearic acid (18:0) (67). Also, we cannot exclude the possibility of residual confounding, particularly by other components in dairy foods, such protein, lactose, or minerals, or by unmeasured or imprecisely measured confounders.

/r/science Thread Parent Link - uth.edu