Dairy consumption and cardiometabolic risk: Advocating change on change analyses

Dairy foods are heterogeneous by type, and contain various nutrients, which could be beneficial or deleterious for health. Current evidence from several meta-analyses on dairy consumption supports a neutral or moderately beneficial association with cardiometabolic disease (1–5). For example, meta-analyses of prospective cohort studies indicate that higher compared with lower yogurt consumption is inversely associated with the development of type 2 diabetes (2, 3). Similarly, higher consumption of milk and cheese is inversely associated with stroke risk (1, 6).

Unfortunately, the results of many studies on dairy consumption and incident cardiometabolic diseases are derived from a single, baseline dietary intake measure. Repeated measures of dairy intake are preferred, in order to obtain more up-to-date consumption level...