Skim Milk and Diabetes
Mercedese Barnett
Article Summary
Skim Milk Could Increase Your Risk of Diabetes, Study Suggests was written by Rachel Dicker. The article was published by U.S. News and World Report on April 6, 2014. Circulation did a study concerning the amount of fat in milk. They compared full fat and low fat milk and how they affect the body. The study was done over 15 years with 3,333 participants. From their research they concluded that there are three different products in full fat milk that leads to a decrease in risk of diabetes by 46%. How the byproducts are lowering the risk is unclear but they are still working on trying to figure out the connection. They believe it is due to the fact that foods that contain a lot of fat fight hunger longer than low fat foods therefore, it causes a person to eat less. They also think that the fat is allowing the liver and muscles to break down food better.
Article Critique
The author of Skim Milk Could Increase Your Risk of Diabetes, Study Suggests, Rachel Dicker, is an Associate Editor at U.S. News and World Report. That is the only information that is offered about her. None of her credentials are listed, this takes away from the reliability of the article. When writing an article on the topic of nutrition, one should have studied the idea in order for the readers to think the article is trust worthy. The article is supported by the publisher, U.S. News and World Report. When searching their website there is no information leading to the conclusion that it has reliable knowledge about health. They report on many different topics around the United States and World and the authors are editors that are not certified in a specific area. When reading the article I found it very hard to follow. I think it jumped around a lot did not contain enough information. It was very spread out and a lot of conclusion were made instead of stating facts. This leads me to believe that there are not many facts on the topic of milk fat content and risk of diabetes. The article quotes Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, who is the leader of the study saying, “There is no prospective human evidence that people who eat low-fat dairy do better than people who eat whole- fat dairy.” That statement may be true but it does not prove that full-fat milk decreases risk of diabetes or any other health conditions when compared with low- fat milk. In the article they say those who had the byproducts of the full-fat dairy products have a 46% lower risk of developing diabetes. They do not state whether these byproducts can be found from other foods and how the byproducts lead to a lower risk. They conclude that it is because full-fat milk keeps you full longer so you do not eat as much but diabetes can be caused by the type of food you consume not just the amount consumed. The article is based on research evidence and they do take the individuals weight into consideration but they did not monitor the participants eating habits which can affect their risk of diabetes.