The EPIC-Norfolk Study
Dairy Product Intake and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes in EPIC-InterAct: A Mendelian Randomization Study.
Diabetes care 2018 ; 42: 568-575.
Vissers LET, Sluijs I, van der Schouw YT, Forouhi NG, Imamura F, Burgess S, Barricarte A, Boeing H, Bonet C, Chirlaque MD, Fagherazzi G, Franks PW, Freisling H, Gunter MJ, Quirós JR, Ibsen DB, Kaaks R, Khaw KT, Kühn T, Nilsson PM, Overvad K, Pala V, Palli D, Panico S, Sacerdote C, Spijkerman AMW, Tjonneland A, Tumino R, Rodriguez-Barranco M, Rolandsson O, Riboli E, Sharp SJ, Langenberg C, and Wareham NJ
DOI : 10.2337/dc18-2034
PubMed ID : 30728219
PMCID : 0
URL : https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30728219/
Abstract
To estimate the causal association between intake of dairy products and incident type 2 diabetes.
The analysis included 21,820 European individuals (9,686 diabetes cases) of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)-InterAct case-cohort study. Participants were genotyped, and rs4988235 (LCT-12910C>T), a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) for lactase persistence (LP) that enables digestion of dairy sugar, i.e., lactose, was imputed. Baseline dietary intakes were assessed with diet questionnaires. We investigated the associations between imputed SNP dosage for rs4988235 and intake of dairy products and other foods through linear regression. Mendelian randomization (MR) estimates for the milk-diabetes relationship were obtained through a two-stage least squares regression.
Each additional LP allele was associated with a higher intake of milk (β 17.1 g/day, 95% CI 10.6-23.6) and milk beverages (β 2.8 g/day, 95% CI 1.0-4.5) but not with intake of other dairy products. Other dietary intakes associated with rs4988235 included fruits (β -7.0 g/day, 95% CI -12.4 to -1.7 per additional LP allele), nonalcoholic beverages (β -18.0 g/day, 95% CI -34.4 to -1.6), and wine (β -4.8 g/day, 95% CI -9.1 to -0.6). In instrumental variable analysis, LP-associated milk intake was not associated with diabetes (hazard ratio 0.99, 95% CI 0.93-1.05).
rs4988235 was associated with milk intake but not with intake of other dairy products. This MR study does not suggest that milk intake is associated with diabetes, which is consistent with previous observational and genetic associations. LP may be associated with intake of other foods as well, but owing to the modest associations, we consider it unlikely that this caused the observed null result.