A new study highlighted the importance of including yogurt in one's daily diet to lower the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
Researchers from Harvard's School of Public Health examined the results of three different studies that looked at the medical data and lifestyle habits of more than 194,000 health professionals aged 25 to 74 from 1976 to 1989. None of them had diabetes, cardiovascular disease or cancer during the start of the study. Researchers followed up with them every two years.
During the follow-up period, eight percent of the participants, or 15,156 people, were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.
Researchers looked at the overall dairy consumption of the participants and did not see a significant benefit, but when they focused on each type of dairy product, they found that yogurt helped to lower the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. The results remained consistent, even after factoring in each person's age and body mass index (BMI).
The study predicted that a serving of at least 28g of yogurt per day can lower the risk by 18 percent, according to Science Codex.
"We found that higher intake of yogurt is associated with a reduced risk of type 2 diabetes, whereas other dairy foods and consumption of total dairy did not show this association. The consistent findings for yogurt suggest that it can be incorporated into a healthy dietary pattern," Frank Hu, the senior researcher of the study from the Harvard School of Public Health, said in a press release.
Researchers claimed that their study was accurate because it involved a large sample size, repeated follow-ups and continuous assessments of dietary and lifestyle factors.
"This work adds to existing evidence that people who eat yoghurt are less likely to develop type 2 diabetes, but what it doesn't tell us is whether eating yoghurt can directly reduce risk of type 2 diabetes," Dr. Alasdair Rankin of charity Diabetes UK, who is not involved in the study, said to Daily Mail.
"That is why more research will be needed before we can change our advice that the best way to reduce risk of type 2 diabetes is by maintaining a healthy weight, being physically active and eating a healthy balanced diet that is low in salt, fat and sugar," he added.
The findings of this study were published in the Nov. 24 issue of BMC Medicine.
