Dairy products and type 2 diabetes risk

In a recent Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) study, researchers found that higher consumption of yoghurt was associated with a reduced risk of type 2 diabetes while other dairy products did not offer similar protection.

Drawing on health data from more than 100,000 participants in three long-running studies  - the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study (1986 to 2010), Nurses’ Health Study (1980 to 2010) and Nurses’ Health Study II (1991 to 2009) - the researchers found that a daily serving of yoghurt was linked to an 18% lower risk of type 2 diabetes.

Senior author Frank Hu, professor of nutrition and epidemiology, told Forbes that the mechanisms behind this finding “are not well understood at this point. One hypothesis is that the probiotics in yoghurt may help to improve insulin sensitivity and reduce inflammation, but this hypothesis needs to be tested in randomised clinical trials.”

The study’s lead author was doctoral student Mu Chen.