Study links daily intake of dairy foods with prevention of type 2 diabetes

Dr V Mohan was speaking on ’Role of Milk and Dairy Products in Lifestyle diseases like diabetes’ organised by Dr Verghese Kurien Centre of Excellence housed at the Institute of Rural Management Anand

Dr Verghese Kurien Centre of Excellence housed at the Institute of Rural Management Anand recently organised an expert talk on ’Role of Milk and Dairy Products in Lifestyle diseases like diabetes’, by Dr. V Mohan, a Padma Shri awardee, and Chairman and Chief Diabetologist of Dr Mohan’s Diabetes Specialities Centre and President of Madras Diabetes Research Foundation, Chennai. In recent times, there are several allegations being made by few people of milk being unhealthy. This lecture, which is based on published scientific evidence shows that milk is actually beneficial to health.

In his talk, Dr Mohan thoroughly discussed all the aspects of milk, starting from mythology to the most modern science. He clearly stated that milk is a most ancient food and as per the Hindu literatures, Kamdhenu was the wish fulfilling cow.

After citing a few nutritional benefits of milk and clearing doubts about A1 and A2 milk, he discussed the research work done by several scientists in the area of diabetes, metabolic syndrome and other lifestyle diseases and their relationship to consumption of dairy foods. He cited another meta-analysis, consisting of 15 studies which concluded that a modest increase in daily intake of dairy foods such as low-fat dairy, cheese and yogurt contributes to the prevention of type 2 diabetes.

Dr Mohan also cited the results results of a Population of Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study published in the prestigious journal ‘Lancet’ that showed dairy intake reduced cardiovascular diseases and both total and cardiovascular mortality. In other words, people who took dairy products lived longer. This is conclusively proving the health benefits of dairy intake.

Finally, based on all the studies done so far, Dr. Mohan concluded that consumption of dairy products is associated with lower prevalence of diabetes, metabolic syndrome, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, stroke and it even reduced mortality and improved longevity.