Scientists from Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha found that dairy foods, especially low-fat dairy foods, are linked to a lower risk of type 2 diabetes.
Type 2 diabetes, the most common type of diabetes, is a disease that occurs when your blood glucose, also called blood sugar, is too high.
Blood glucose is your main source of energy and comes mainly from the food you eat. Insulin, a hormone made by the pancreas, helps glucose get into your cells to be used for energy.
In type 2 diabetes, your body doesn’t make enough insulin or doesn’t use insulin well. Too much glucose then stays in your blood, and not enough reaches your cells.
Dairy foods include milk, yogurt, cheese, lactose-free milk, fortified soy milk, and yogurt.
It does not include foods made from milk that have little calcium and high-fat content, such as cream cheese, sour cream, cream, and butter.
The nutrients in milk and dairy help to keep muscles, bones, nerves, teeth, skin, and vision healthy. Release energy from foods and reduce tiredness and fatigue. Maintain healthy blood pressure. Support normal growth and brain development. And even support normal immune functioning.
Dairy foods have been related to type 2 diabetes, but previous findings have shown mixed results regarding the association between dairy foods and type 2 diabetes risk.
In the current study, researchers aimed to examine the scientific evidence about the link between eating dairy foods and the risk of type 2 diabetes.
They reviewed data from hundreds of studies including tens of thousands of cases of type 2 diabetes. The participants’ ages ranged from 20 to 88 y, and participants were followed up from 4 to 30 years old.
The team found most studies reported an inverse association between type 2 diabetes risk and dairy food consumption, especially for low-fat dairy foods, low-fat milk, and yogurt.
They also found a decreased type 2 diabetes risk for intake of 200-400 g/day of total dairy foods and 200 g/day of low-fat dairy foods.
The researchers concluded that dairy food consumption is linked to a lower risk of type 2 diabetes, especially for yogurt and low-fat dairy foods. The association with cheese is moderate.
Moreover, the risk of type 2 diabetes decreased with the increase in consumption of low-fat dairy foods.
The research is published in Advances in Nutrition and was conducted by Celia Alvarez-Bueno et al.
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