Regular consumption cut the risk of developing type 2 diabetes

healthydailymail.com Eating an egg every other day may keep diabetes at bay, claim researchers.

Regular consumption cut the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by a third, according to a new study.

A second study found similar health benefits from eating high fat dairy foods, such as cheese.

However, the latest research is believed to be the first to show eggs offer a specific benefit in reducing type 2 diabetes – although high consumption might be a marker of a healthier lifestyle, say experts.

Both studies come from Scandinavian researchers and are published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

A study by the University of Eastern Finland looked at the role of eggs in type 2 diabetes, with researchers pointing out that high-cholesterol foods such as eggs have been assumed to raise the risk.

The eating habits of 2,332 men aged 42 to 60 who took part in a heart disease study in the 1980s were recorded, and two decades later 432 men were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.

Results showed eggs not only reduced the risk of type 2 diabetes but also lowered blood glucose levels.

Men who ate around four eggs per week had a 37 per cent lower risk of type 2 diabetes than men who only ate one egg per week.

Eating more than four eggs did not bring any significant extra benefits.

The link remained even after taking account of exercise and smoking habits, bodyweight and fruit and veg intake.

Jyrki Virtanen, adjunct professor of nutritional epidemiology, University of Eastern Finland, Institute of Public Health and Clinical Nutrition, said there was little previous scientific evidence either way on eggs and diabetes risk.

He said: ‘There is no experimental data available on the effects of egg consumption on the incidence of type 2 diabetes.

‘In population-based studies, too, the association between egg consumption and type 2 diabetes has been investigated only scarcely, and the findings have been inconclusive.

‘Egg consumption has either been associated with an elevated risk, or no association has been found.’

Dr Virtanen said the findings underlined the hazards of demonising single dietary ingredients.

‘A possible explanation is that unlike in many other populations, egg consumption in Finland is not strongly associated with unhealthy lifestyle habits such as smoking, low physical activity or consumption of processed meats’ he said.

‘In addition to cholesterol, eggs contain many beneficial nutrients that can have an effect on, for example, glucose metabolism and low-grade inflammation, and thus lower the risk of type 2 diabetes.

‘The study also suggests that the overall health effects of foods are difficult to anticipate based on an individual nutrient such as cholesterol alone.

‘Indeed, instead of focusing on individual nutrients, nutrition research has increasingly focused on the health effects of whole foods and diets over the past few years,’ he added.

Britons eat 32 million eggs a day, according to the British Egg Industry Council, and consumption rose two per cent last year.

Eating yogurt also lowered the risk of type 2 diabetes by a quarter

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Eating yogurt also lowered the risk of type 2 diabetes by a quarter

The number of Britons diagnosed with diabetes is over three million, with most having type 2 which is strongly linked to lifestyle factors such as being overweight or obese, leading a sedentary lifestyle and eating an unhealthy diet.

A second study found eating high fat cheese and yogurt lowered the risk of type 2 diabetes by a quarter, but high fat meat increased the risk.

Scientists at Lund University, in Sweden, looked at the effect of different sources of saturated fat on diabetes risk, as meat and dairy products contain varying types.

The eating habits of 27,000 people aged 45 to 74 in the Malmö Diet and Cancer study were recoded from the early 1990s, with 2,860 people being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes 20 years later.

The results suggested high-fat dairy products cut the risk.

Dr Ulrika Ericson said: ‘Those who ate the most high-fat dairy products had a 23 per cent lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes than those who ate the least.

‘High meat consumption was linked to an increased risk of type 2 diabetes regardless of the fat content of the meat.

‘When we investigated the consumption of saturated fatty acids that are slightly more common in dairy products than in meat, we observed a link with a reduced risk of type 2 diabetes.

‘However, we have not ruled out the possibility that other components of dairy products such as yogurt and cheese may have contributed to our results.’

‘Moreover, different food components can interact with each other. For example, in one study, saturated fat in cheese appeared to have less of a cholesterol-raising effect than saturated fat in butter.

‘Our results suggest that we should not focus solely on fat, but rather consider what foods we eat. Many foodstuffs contain different components that are harmful or beneficial to health, and it is the overall balance that is important,' she added.

Scientists at Cambridge University last year said eating a pot of yogurt a day cut the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by more than a quarter.

Taken together, eating modest amounts of yogurt and low-fat cheeses reduced the chances of becoming diabetic by 24 per cent over an 11-year period.