Dairy lovers show lower metabolic syndrome risk

Men who regularly consume milk, cheese and yogurt may be less likely to develop a cluster of risk factors for diabetes and heart disease, a study suggests.
Researchers found that among nearly 2,400 middle-aged British men, those who drank at least a pint of milk per day were 62 percent less likely than men who rarely drank milk to have metabolic syndrome.
Metabolic syndrome refers to a group of risk factors for heart disease and type 2 diabetes. The components include high blood pressure, elevated blood sugar levels, abdominal obesity, high blood levels of triglycerides (a type of fat) and low blood levels of "good" cholesterol.
The new findings point to an association between dairy foods and the odds of having metabolic syndrome, but do not confirm that consumption of these foods prevent the syndrome.
However, other research has tied regular milk drinking to lower blood pressure, which may help explain its connection to metabolic syndrome, lead study author Dr. Peter C. Elwood told Reuters Health.
Some other evidence, he added, links dairy foods to better weight control.
Another larger clinical trial found that dairy foods significantly protected against the development of the metabolic syndrome.
All of this suggests that at the least, dairy products "fit well" into a healthy diet, Elwood and his colleagues at Cardiff University in the UK report in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
Milk products may raise cholesterol, Elwood noted, but he added that the public has become "hung up" on this fact. Milk is a "complex food," he said, and may have a wide range of effects in the body.
Source: Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, August 2007