Yogurt has approached wonder-food status in recent years, as studies have suggested that it may help everything from irritable bowel syndrome to depression to high blood pressure. Now, research out in BMC Medicine suggests it’s also linked to lower risk for type 2 diabetes, a disease that currently affects some 366 million people worldwide, and is expected to affect many millions more by the year 2030. In the new study, other forms of dairy like milk and cheese, did not offer the same kind of protection as yogurt for diabetes risk. Which sounds like good news for yogurt devotees — as long as you don’t mind the fact that no one quite understands how the relationship works.
The study culled data from 41,497 participants from the Health Professionals’ Follow-up Study, which included male dentists, pharmacists, veterinarians, osteopathic physicians and podiatrists; 67,138 from the Nurses’ Health Study; and 85,884 from Nurses’ Health Study II. Participants were queried every two years about their dietary habits and followed for up to 30 years to determine their health outcomes.
Over 15,000 of the three studies’ participants developed diabetes over the years. There was no correlation between dairy consumption and diabetes risk at all — with one exception: Yogurt was linked to a significantly lower risk of diabetes. And this was true even after controlling for factors linked to diabetes risk like body mass index (BMI) and diet. The team then pulled in data from previous studies to add to theirs, and calculated that 28 grams of yogurt per day was linked to an 18% lower risk of type 2 diabetes.
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