Effect of Dairy Consumption on Glycemic Control, Body Weight and Cardiovascular Risk in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes

This is a randomized, controlled clinical study in which 108 subjects with type 2 diabetes will be randomized into 3 different groups: Full fat dairy group (Group A): will receive nutritional counseling aiming to maintain body weight from a registered dietician and will be instructed to include at least ≥3 servings of full fat dairy products into their diet Low fat dairy group (Group B): will receive nutritional counseling aiming to maintain body weight from a registered dietician and will be instructed to include at least ≥3 servings of low fat dairy products into their diet Control group (Group C): will receive nutritional counseling aiming to maintain body weight from a registered dietician and will not be asked to include a specified amount or type of dairy products Subjects in Groups A and B will be educated about different dairy products' serving sizes and fat content. Subjects in all 3 groups will be asked to record their daily intake of dairy products in a dedicated log book. Subjects randomized to groups A and B will be asked to only use only dairy products with either the full fat or and low (≤1%) fat dairy (≤1% fat content) content respectively. Purchase of the dairy products will be the responsibility of study subjects for which a subsidy of $500 (about $20/week for 24 weeks) will be provided for each subject. All study participants will also be asked to record their food intake for 3 days before each study visit in a 3-day food log.