Type II diabetes is a disease that is plaguing the world we live in. With approximately 26 million people in the United States currently suffering from this disease, and about 366 million people throughout the world. This disease has a huge impact on these individuals’ lives as it decreases their quality and freedom of life. Often time’s type II diabetes also imposes a huge financial burden that makes finding and receiving treatment more difficult. To make bad things worse, the number of people currently suffering is expected to rise by 60% within the next 15 years1. However, scientists may have found a way for us to fight back. Recent research has shown that individuals who eat more yogurt, have an 18% less chance of developing this disease. Daily consumption of yogurt may significantly reduce the risk of developing this disease.
Biomedical Central recently released a Meta-analysis study that took information from a total of 194,458 individuals that was gathered from 3 different cohort studies. These studies were: The Men in Health Professions Study, Nurses’ Health Study, and the Nurses’ Health Study II. The information from these studies was collected from food frequency questioners. These questioners asked each participant how often that ate specific foods. The questioners were repeated every 4 years, in order to assess the diets of the participants.1 Statistical testing was then used to determine the risk associated with dairy consumption, and the development of type II diabetes. Additional statistical testing was done to adjust for any confounding factors that may have occurred. Overall dairy consumption, and dairy fat percentages were not found to be associated with a risk of developing diabetes throughout all of the groups that were studied. Despite this, there was a reduced risk of developing type II diabetes in participants that consumed higher amounts of yogurt. (With an HR of 0.83 (95% CI: 0.75, 0.92)) Consuming one serving of yogurt daily may decrease the chances of developing type II diabetes by 18%.
This study has a great impact on our society, as it provides us with a potential solution that can help increase our health by reducing our risk of chronic disease. By simply adding a serving of yogurt to your daily breakfast, or as a snack throughout the day. The high number of participants that were surveyed within the three cohorts, strengthens the amount of confidence we can place on these results. However, the relationship of yogurt consumption and the development of type II diabetes could be more strongly exhibited with the further research. With the results of a randomized clinical trial to back the claim that yogurts protects against type II diabetes. It would be interesting to study this further and see what benefit yogurt provides that other dairy products don’t, and solidify the evidence that suggest that high yogurt consumption may help prevent the development of type II diabetes.
There has yet to be any clinical trials done to show a correlation between consuming yogurt and preventing type II diabetes. Dairy products contain many bioactive components that scientists have been trying to understand for some time. 1 The authors of this paper believe these components contain the answers as to why yogurt has this effect and that is not present amongst other dairy products. Other research has been published that may be able to suggest possible explanations, as to why yogurt shows a decreased association with type II diabetes development. Higher consumption of yogurt has been found to have additional benefits to our health, and has been associated with weight loss 2. Weight loss has been shown to increase the amount of insulin sensitivity, and thus decrease diabetes prevalence3. Yogurt also contains whey protein, which has a thermogenic effect. This increases the amount of energy the body uses to digest it4. A greater energy expenditure would help contribute to potential weight loss, and increased insulin sensitivity. A study with adolescent participants showed that those who consumed the greatest amounts or dairy had the lowest risk for diabetes5. Daily consumption of yogurt has been found to help with glycemic control in diabetes patients6. This influence on glycemic control, may be a contributing factor as to why yogurt helps protect against Type II Diabetes
Consuming one serving of yogurt every day may significantly reduce your chance of developing diabetes. Although, there is still a lot of research that needs to be done in order to develop stronger scientific evidence of this protective effects, there are many benefits of consuming yogurt. Eating yogurt will be benefit to you and help contribute to better health.
http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/s12916-014-0215-1.pdf
References
- Gao D, Ning N, Li Q, et al. Dairy Products Consumption and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes: Systematic Review and Dose-Response Meta-Analysis. Plos ONE. September 2013:8(9):1-15.
- Mozaffarian D, Hao T, Rimm E, Willett W, Hu F. changes in diet and lifestyle and long-term weight gain in women and men. New England Journal of Medicine. June 2011:364:2392-2404.
- Kim Y, Kotani K, Ciaraldi T, Henry R, Kahn B. Insulin-stimulated Protein Kinase C λ/ζ Activity is reduced with obesity and Type 2 Diabetes. Diabetes Journal. August 2003:52(8):1935-1942.
- Jakubowicz D, Froy O: Biochemical and metabolic mechanisms by which dietary whey protein may compab obesity and Type 2 diabetes. Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry. January 2013:24(1):1-5.
- Malik V, Sun Q, et al. Adolescent dairy product consumption and risk of type 2 diabetes in middle-aged women. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. September 2011:94(3):854-861.
- Nikooyeh B, Neyestani T, et al. Daily consumption of vitamin D- or vitamin D + Calcium-fortified yogurt drink improved glycemic control in patients with type 2 diabetes: a randomized clinical trial. The American Journal of Clinical Nutririon. April 2011:93(4):764-771.
Reviewed by Viktoriya Wolff
