A new study suggests eating cheese could stop you developing diabetes. The evidence would seem at odds with other research showing how cheese, which is high in fat, can have a negative effect on cholesterol levels and the heart.
However, the team from Oxford University and Imperial College London say those who scoff a lot of cheese are less likely to develop diabetes than those who either eat a little cheese or eat none.
The findings have divided medical opinion with both the NHS and Diabetes UK warning that no one should up their intake of cheese based on the research and insisting that a healthy, balanced diet that is low in salt and rich in fruit and vegetables is the best way to avoid developing diabetes.
The British research was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition and is part of a Europe-wide study into the connection between diet and health. The diets of more than 12,000 people from eight countries who had all developed diabetes were compared with almost 17,000 people chosen at random.
The research concluded that those who eat 56g of fermented dairy products every day have a lower chance of developing diabetes. Cheese has high levels of saturated fats and the researchers believe those fats initiate a positive “fermentation process” that helps protect the body against health conditions caused by diet, such as diabetes and heart disease.
However, doubt has been cast on how valid the results are. NHS Choice points out that while French people generally eat more cheese anyway, the risk of diabetes there is lower than it is in the UK. The study was also criticised for not specifying exactly what the dairy products talked about in the research were and whether they were low or high fat.
The authors have called for more studies into any potential link between cheese eating and lowering the risk of diabetes.
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