Although experts say it’s too soon to draw clear conclusions, the findings seem to run counter to current advice to people with diabetes, who are generally told to pick low- or non-fat dairy products.
Recent studies on how dairy products might lower diabetes risk don't all reach the same verdict. Nor do they agree about exactly which types of dairy and which fat contents are best.
Some studies have found that yogurt has a strong effect on cutting diabetes risk, but not other dairy products.
What's clear is that dairy products benefit more than our bones, says Michael Tunick, PhD. He's a research chemist at the Agricultural Research Service at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
He reviewed recent research on dairy goods and health in a report published in November in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. Besides preventing diabetes, lowering blood pressure, and reducing heart disease risk, he found research showing dairy products can even prevent tooth decay, obesity, and cancer.
''Diabetes prevention may be an added benefit that is unexpected," he says.
Last year, researchers pooled the results of 17 different studies that had looked at dairy foods and type 2 diabetes. Those who ate dairy products, including low-fat dairy and cheese, had a lower diabetes risk than those who did not.
More recently, Harvard researchers looked at the diet habits of more than 289,000 health professionals, including nurses and doctors. They also checked the results of 14 published studies looking at dairy and diabetes risk.
In this research, yogurt emerged as the star. While other types of dairy were not linked with a substantial drop in diabetes risk, yogurt was. The study didn't focus on one particular type of yogurt, beyond “plain” or “flavored.”
Eating a serving a day of yogurt lowered diabetes risk by about 19%, the researchers reported in November in BMC Medicine.
In another recent study, Swedish researchers looked separately at low-fat and high-fat dairy. They reported that men and women who ate eight or more servings of high-fat dairy products daily had a 23% lower risk of getting type 2 diabetes, compared to those who had one or less serving daily.
They found no link with low-fat dairy and diabetes, a finding that some experts say warrants more study.
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