by Elena Meli
Most can drink a cup of milk a day and doing so can reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes, thanks to an improvement in intestinal bacterial flora.
Even those who are lactose intolerant should try to consume some milk and dairy products: most can tolerate small quantities which are still very precious, because a large study published in Nature Metabolism
has just demonstrated how this modifies the intestinal bacterial flora in a positive sense and reduces the risk of getting type 2 diabetes, one of the most widespread and constantly increasing pathologies.
Intolerant
The study was conducted following over 12 thousand people for approximately six years and demonstrated that adding a cup of milk a day to the diet, i.e. a quantity of lactose that the majority of intolerants can manage to introduce without experiencing problems, can reduce by approximately 30 percent risk of type 2 diabetes. The effect was not equally evident in those who do not have the genetic modification associated with the deficiency of lactase, the enzyme that metabolises lactose and which is precisely lacking in intolerants: in practice, in people with intolerance the effect of dairy products seems even greater than the equally positive effect observed in those who can digest milk.
The addition of milk, according to the investigation, is accompanied by changes in the composition of the microbiota, the intestinal bacterial flora: for example, the bacteria of the Bifidobacterium genus increase and those of the Prevotella genus decrease, with consequences on the quantity and quality of the metabolites present in circulation. These changes translate into a lower risk of developing metabolic disease.
Dairy products and diabetes
The data confirm, even in lactose intolerants, the importance of milk and dairy products in preventing type 2 diabetes, which has already emerged from a recent Italian review of all the studies on the subject: in these products there are nutrients that influence glucose metabolism in a positive manner, protecting for example from the onset of insulin resistance which is the first step towards the disease.
Practically all lactose intolerants can tolerate a cup of milk without discomfort and everyone can identify the appropriate dose for themselves or, alternatively, opt for products such as yogurt, which many tolerate because it is lower in lactose thanks to the presence of lactic ferments, or cheeses with little lactose. The important thing is not to completely deprive yourself of milk and dairy products unless strictly necessary: there are very few intolerant people who necessarily have to do without the anti-diabetes benefits of milk.
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February 20, 2024 (modified February 20, 2024 | 08:46)
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