Daisy beats diabetes

By 26. September 2013Blog, Health, Nutrition

A paper published this week in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (AJCN) has delved into older studies and reanalyzed the data to look for an association between diabetes and consuming dairy products.

Type 2 diabetes and obesity are on the rise, fuelled by changing diets and less physical activity. According to the researchers, it has been hypothesized that the high calcium, magnesium, vitamin D and whey proteins in dairy products can product against type 2 diabetes by reducing body fat and insulin resistance. However, previous studies had conflicting results, some finding an inverse correlation and others finding no association at all.

A high intake of dairy products was associated with a significant decrease in diabetes. This was highly significant for yogurt, low fat or skimmed milk and cheese, but not for full fat milk or full fat dairy products.

The researchers did point out that people who had a high intake of low fat dairy products may also be more like to follow a healthier lifestyle such as exercising more or eating a more controlled diet.

Nonetheless, an interesting read. The paper is available from the AJCN website.