Dairy products and constituents: a review of their effects on obesity and related metabolic diseases

AbstractObesity has become a global public health problem that seriously affects the quality of life. As an important part of human diet, dairy products contain a large number of nutrients that are essential for maintaining human health, such as proteins, peptides, lipids, vitamins, and minerals. A growing number of epidemiological investigations provide strong evidence on dairy interventions for weight loss in overweight/obese populations. Therefore, this paper outlines the relationship between the consumption of different dairy products and obesity and related metabolic diseases. In addition, we dive into the mechanisms related to the regulation of glucose and lipid metabolism by functional components in dairy products and the interaction with gut microbes. Lastly, the role of dairy products on obesity of children and adolescents is revisited. We conclude that whole dairy products exert more beneficial effect than single milk constituent on alleviating obesity and that dairy matrix has important implications for metabolic health.Keywords: Milk compositiondairy productsobesityprobioticsprebioticssynbioticspostbioticsmilk fat Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.Additional informationFundingThis work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China10.13039/501100001809 (82008600); the Key Project of Scientific Research Funds of Heilongjiang Province (CZKYF2021-2-B017); the Key Project of National Dairy Innovation Research Center of Inner Mongolia (2021-National Dairy Innovation Research Center-8); Characteristic Probiotics and New Fermented Food Team in Northeast Agricultural University (54940912).