Yogurt is quite popular these days. There are countless commercials for various yogurts on television and they all promote a healthy lifestyle. Some are guilt-free and low-calorie. Some are foreign and sexy. And some aim to assist your digestive health. While marketers for yogurt, may constantly be trying to find new angles to get people to eat yogurt, researchers might have found the best yet: a daily serving of yogurt can actually lower your risk for type 2 diabetes.
This could be great news for anyone who has been diagnosed with pre-diabetes by their doctors.
The Study
Published in the November issue of medical journal BMC Medicine, the study tracked results from three separate groups of subjects: over 41,000 men in the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study, over 67,000 women in the Nurse’s Health Study and almost 86,000 women in the Nurse’s Health Study II--totaling over 194,000 participants for the purpose of this study. All 3 of these studies tracked the medical histories and lifestyles over the course of several years.
When the study began, all of the participants were healthy--none of them had been diagnosed with diabetes, cardiovascular disease or cancer. And all the participants were required to write about their dairy intake on the questionnaires they received from researchers.
At the end of the study, over 15,000 participants had ended up being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Upon further analysis of the dairy intake of each participant, researchers concluded that there is a strong association between a higher yogurt intake and a lower risk of type 2 diabetes. In fact, eating just 28 grams of yogurt daily can reduce your risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 18 percent.
Why Yogurt
The researchers believe that the probiotic bacteria in yogurt combined with fat content and level of antioxidants are the main factors in why yogurt, as opposed to other dairy products, is successful in battling type 2 diabetes.
"The consistent findings for yogurt suggest that it can be incorporated into a healthy dietary pattern," write the authors of the study. "However, randomized clinical trials are warranted to further examine the causal effects of yogurt consumption as well as probiotics on body weight and insulin resistance."
Making Better Choices
Type 2 diabetes currently affects nearly 30 million Americans, and that number is rising rapidly. It’s important to learn how to manage your risk of developing type 2 diabetes to prevent yourself from developing complications of the disease, such as: hypertension, cardiovascular problems, stroke, blindness, kidney disease and limb amputations.
Yogurt alone is not enough to battle type 2 diabetes; it’s also important to incorporate exercise and better overall eating habits into your daily routine. And if you are a smoker, quitting a cigarette habit can also significantly reduce your risk of developing type 2 diabetes. If you think you may be at risk of developing type 2 diabetes, be sure to talk to your doctor about other ways in which you can help keep the symptoms at bay.
