Diabetes
has been on the rise in the US. Today,
more than one million people are diagnosed with diabetes every year. As the seventh leading cause of death in the
US, over 245 billion dollars has been allotted to finding better treatments and
possible cures for diabetes. These are
general statistics on diabetes (not specifically type I or type II).
Yogurt may
be a possible preventative measure of diabetes type II. A study conducted by Dr. Hu found a
correlation between eating a serving a yogurt everyday and a decrease risk of
having type II diabetes by 19 percent.
Dr. Hu and associates began to pool their data (originally a study
trying to find links between dairy products and diabetes) with other
researcher’s data and found that overall, eating yogurt had an 18 percent
reduced risk of having diabetes. These
findings could conclude that one’s gut microbiota may play a role in preventing
diabetes (remember that seminar article about artificial sugars?).
Beginningin 1990, scientists have started to link memory problems and type II
diabetes. More than thirteen thousand
black and white adults ages 48 to 67 were tested for their memory, reasoning,
problem solving, and planning using delayed word recall, digit symbol
substitution, and word fluency tests.
Over the
following twenty years, the scientists conducted five periodic examinations,
but at the end only approximately six thousand subjects left. The scientists discovered that people who
suffered from a nineteen percent greater cognitive decline compared with those
who did not have diabetes. Poor control
of diabetes had an even greater decline in cognitive function compared to those
who were able to control their diabetes.
Diabetes is
linked to impaired blood circulation and the researchers suggested a
relationship between memory and thinking impairment to damage in the small
blood vessels in the brain. Thus,
diabetes control and prevention may help to protect against later-in-life
cognitive decline.
While I do see the health benefits of yogurt, some of it can be packed with sugar. Did they perform the experiment using different types of yogurt like Greek yogurt? I found an article from USNews Health http://health.usnews.com/health-news/diet-fitness/diet/articles/2011/09/30/greek-yogurt-vs-regular-yogurt-which-is-more-healthful that said Greek yogurt contains half the carbs of regular yogurt and is packed with protein. So do you think it could be the bacteria in yogurt that helps to decrease the risk of type II diabetes or the nutritional value?
ReplyDelete