Dairy rich diets cut risk of high blood pressure, diabetes

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Dairy rich diets cut risk of high blood pressure, diabetes
Dairy rich diets cut risk of high blood pressure, diabetes

New Delhi : If a person is eating at least two dairy rich diets in a day then he is at a lower risk of getting high blood pressure and diabetes, finds a new study.

Dairy products include milk, yoghurt, yoghurt drinks, cheese and dishes prepared with dairy products, and were classified as full or low fat (1-2 per cent).

Butter and creams are not included as they have different regulations on consumptions in different countries.

The findings from the study have been published in the journal The BMJ Open Diabetes Research & Care.

For the study, researchers drew on people taking part in the Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study.

The participants belonged to 21 countries, including India, and all were in the age group between 35 to 70, the age where high blood pressure and diabetes is a common disease.

Usual dietary intake over the previous 12 months was assessed by means of Food Frequency Questionnaires.

Data on all five components of the metabolic syndrome were available for nearly 113,000 people: blood pressure, waist circumference, low levels of high-density cholesterol; blood fats and fasting blood glucose.

The results found that with atleast two servings a day of total dairy were associated with a 24 per cent lower risk of metabolic syndrome, rising to 28 per cent for full-fat dairy alone, compared with no daily dairy intake.

The health of nearly 190,000 participants was also tracked for an average of nine years, during which time 13,640 people developed high blood pressure and 5351 developed diabetes.

At least two servings a day of total dairy was associated with an 11-12 per cent lower risk of both conditions, rising to a 13-14 per cent lower risk for 3 daily servings.

"If our findings are confirmed in sufficiently large and long term trials, then increasing dairy consumption may represent a feasible and low-cost approach to reducing metabolic syndrome,, diabetes, and ultimately cardiovascular disease events worldwide," the authors wrote.