May 13, 2005

Low-fat dairy foods may help reduce men's risk of type 2 diabetes

The consumption of low-fat dairy foods may reduce men's risk of developing type 2
diabetes, according to a study in the May 9 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine. The report from researchers at the MGH, BWH and Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) is the first large-scale, prospective examination of a relationship between dairy intake and diabetes risk.

Several recent studies have suggested that dairy consumption may help control weight and blood pressure and improve insulin sensitivity. To directly examine the relationship between dairy consumption and diabetes risk, the researchers examined data collected on more than 41,000 participants in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, based at HSPH. They found that those men consuming higher levels of dairy foods during the 12-year study period had significantly less risk of developing type 2 diabetes than did those consuming the lowest levels. Further analysis showed that risk reduction was almost exclusively associated with low-fat or non-fat dairy foods.

"Additional studies will be required both to confirm this relationship and to see if the results apply to women or to men younger than this group, who were in their 50s when they joined the study," says Hyon Choi, MD, PhD, director of Outcomes Research in the MGH Rheumatology Unit and the paper's lead author. "Another question to be investigated would be whether adjusting dairy intake could be helpful to people with established type 2 diabetes, and the mechanism behind any relation between dairy intake and diabetes risk needs to be clarified."