Health
New research published in Diabetologia (the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes) shows that higher consumption of yogurt, compared with no consumption, can reduce the risk of new-onset type 2 diabetes by 28 percent.
Scientists at the University of Cambridge found that in fact higher consumption of low-fat fermented dairy products, which include all yogurt varieties and some low-fat cheeses, also reduced the relative risk of diabetes by 24 percent overall.
Lead scientist Dr. Nita Forouhi, from the Medical Research Council (MRC) Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge, said, “This research highlights that specific foods may have an important role in the prevention of type 2 diabetes and are relevant for public health messages.”
Dairy products are an important source of high quality protein, vitamins and minerals. However, they are also a source of saturated fat, which dietary guidelines currently advise people not to consume in high quantities, instead recommending they replace these with lower fat options.
Previous studies on links between dairy product consumption (high fat or low fat) and diabetes had inconclusive findings. Thus, the nature of the association between dairy product intake and type 2 diabetes remains unclear, prompting the authors to carry out this new investigation, using much more detailed assessment of dairy product consumption than was done in past research.
The research was based on the large EPIC-Norfolk study which includes more than 25,000 men and women living in Norfolk, UK.
It compared a detailed daily record of all the food and drink consumed over a week at the time of study entry among 753 people who developed new-onset type 2 diabetes over 11 years of follow-up with 3,502 randomly selected study participants.
This allowed the researchers to examine the risk of diabetes in relation to the consumption of total dairy products and also types of individual dairy products.
The consumption of total dairy, total high-fat dairy or total low-fat dairy was not associated with new-onset diabetes once important factors like healthier lifestyles, education, obesity levels, other eating habits and total calorie intake were taken into account.
Total milk and cheese intakes were also not associated with diabetes risk. In contrast, those with the highest consumption of low-fat fermented dairy products (such as yogurt, fromage frais and low-fat cottage cheese) were 24 percent less likely to develop type 2 diabetes over the 11 years, compared with nonconsumers.
When examined separately from the other low-fat fermented dairy products, yogurt, which makes up more than 85 percent of these products, was associated with a 28 percent reduced risk of developing diabetes.
This risk reduction was observed among individuals who consumed an average of four and a half standard 125g pots of yogurt per week. The same applies to other low-fat fermented dairy products such as low-fat unripened cheeses including fromage frais and low-fat cottage cheese.
A further finding was that consuming yogurt in place of a portion of other snacks such as crisps also reduced the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
While this type of study cannot prove that eating dairy products causes the reduced diabetes risk, dairy products do contain beneficial constituents such as vitamin D, calcium and magnesium. In addition, fermented dairy products may exert beneficial effects against diabetes through probiotic bacteria and a special form of vitamin K (part of the menaquinone family) associated with fermentation.
The authors acknowledge the limitations of dietary research which relies on asking people what they eat and not accounting for change in diets over time, but their study was large with long followup, and had detailed assessment of people's diets that was collected in real-time as people consumed the foods, rather than relying on past memory.
The authors conclude that their study therefore helps to provide robust evidence that consumption of low-fat fermented dairy products, largely driven by yogurt intake, is associated with a decreased risk of developing future type 2 diabetes.
“At a time when we have a lot of other evidence that consuming high amounts of certain foods, such as added sugars and sugary drinks, is bad for our health, it is very reassuring to have messages about other foods like yogurt and low-fat fermented dairy products, that could be good for our health,” said Dr. Forouhi.
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WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Reps. Mike Thompson (CA-5) and Anna Eshoo (CA-18) have introduced H.R. 3986, the Fair Access to Health Care Act.
The legislation would expand the eligibility for premium tax credits for people living in high-cost areas who purchase health insurance through the federal and state exchanges set up by the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
“A middle class income means different things in different parts of the country,” said Thompson. “In some California cities, the cost of living is far higher than the national average. Because of the across-the-board income thresholds set by the ACA, some hard working families in high-cost areas like ours don’t qualify for subsides and therefore can’t get affordable insurance. This bill will help make affordable health insurance a reality, no matter where someone lives.”
“The Affordable Care Act is helping low to middle-income Americans buy private health insurance with subsidies adjusted to their income level,” said Eshoo. “While this is tremendously helpful to millions of individuals and families, there are others in high-cost areas, like those in my home district of Silicon Valley, who cannot benefit because the threshold to qualify for subsidies does not account for the cost of living. The Fair Access to Health Act ties health insurance subsidies to the cost of living of a geographic area instead of to the national federal poverty level. In doing so, we can expand access to health insurance and improve our nation’s health.”
Currently the ACA allows those making between 138 and 400 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL) to qualify for premium tax credits to help them purchase health insurance through the ACA’s exchanges.
At this level, an individual making up to $45,960 and a family of four making up to $94,200 qualify for premium tax credits.
However, the income threshold used to determine eligibility for these tax credits doesn’t take into account the cost of living for different geographic areas.
A family living in New York City or San Francisco is treated the same as a family living in a small town in South Carolina or Texas.
The Fair Access to Health Care Act would allow the premium tax credits offered through the ACA to be increased proportionally based on an area’s cost of living.
Under the bill, the federal poverty level threshold will increase proportionally based on an area’s cost of living above the national average cost-of-living.
The cost-of-living is determined using the Census Bureau’s Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM).
For example, using this calculation:
- In the San Francisco-Oakland-Freemont, California Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), a family of four earning up to $125,757 and individuals earning up to $61,356 could qualify for premium tax credits to purchase health insurance through the ACA’s exchanges.
- In the Vallejo-Fairfield, Calif., MSA, a family of four earning up to $109,743 and an individual earning up to $53,543 could qualify for premium tax credits to purchase health insurance through the ACA’s exchanges.
- In the Napa, Calif., MSA a family of four earning up to $116,808 and individuals earning up to$56,990 could qualify for premium tax credits to purchase health insurance through the ACA’s exchanges.
- In the Santa Rosa-Petaluma, Calif., MSA a family of four earning up to $113,746 and individuals earning up to $55,496 could qualify for premium tax credits to purchase health insurance through the ACA’s exchanges.
Precedent already exists in the ACA for such cost-of-living adjustments. The ACA accounts for the cost-of-living differences in Alaska and Hawaii by using a higher income threshold to determine subsidy eligibility. The Fair Access to Health Care Act would provide similar adjustments to the other 48 states.
Individuals and families from low-cost geographical areas will not be impacted by this legislation. Those earning up to 400 percent of the FPL would still be eligible for subsides and no region would see a reduction from their current subsidy level.
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