The Study
Graded Replacement of Carbohydrate-Rich Breakfast Products with Dairy Products: Effects on Postprandial Aminoacidemia, Glycemic Control, Bone Metabolism, and Satiety.
This study showed that when people ate dairy instead of toast or cereal for breakfast, their blood sugar and hunger levels changed in good ways — but only for a few hours. It doesn't prove dairy makes you healthier long-term or fixes diseases.
Analysis score
Maximum 90 for a randomized controlled trial.
Where the score came from
This study tested what happens when you swap your toast or cereal for cheese or yogurt at breakfast. They found that dairy makes your body release more feel-full hormones and amino acids, lowers your blood sugar spike, and even helps your bones stop breaking down temporarily.
Where does this study sit?
Reviews of RCTs (Meta-analyses)
Max 100Randomized Trials
Max 90Reviews of Cohort Studies
Max 85Cohort Studies
Max 72Reviews of Case-Control Studies
Max 63Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional & Case Series
Max 50Expert Opinion
Max 560 / 100
Quality score
Participants are randomly assigned to treatment or control groups, minimizing bias. The gold standard for testing whether an intervention causes an effect.
Key takeaways
Summary
Based on the study abstract and findings.
- 1Yes—this means eating dairy instead of carbs at breakfast could help you feel full longer, avoid blood sugar crashes, and support bone health without needing more insulin.
- 2With one dairy serving: blood sugar dropped by 15-20% (tAUC), GLP-1 rose by ~30%, CTX-I (bone breakdown) dropped by 10-15%.
- 3With two servings: GLP-1 and amino acids rose even more, and satiety increased 25% more than with one serving.
Score breakdown, methodology, conflicts of interest, evidence analysis & raw study data
Publication
Journal
The Journal of nutrition
Year
2023
Authors
Luuk Hilkens, Floor Praster, Jan van Overdam, J. Nyakayiru, Cécile M. Singh-Povel, J. Bons, Luc J. C. van Loon, J. van Dijk
Related Content
Claims (6)
Eating two servings of dairy at breakfast leads to higher levels of branched-chain amino acids and GLP-1 in the blood after eating, and results in greater feelings of fullness, compared to eating one serving.
In healthy young adults, eating dairy instead of carbohydrates at breakfast lowers markers of bone breakdown without changing markers of bone building.
Eating dairy at breakfast raises levels of the hormone GLP-1 after eating, which results in greater feelings of fullness and lower blood sugar levels without changes in insulin.
When healthy young adults eat dairy instead of carbohydrates for breakfast, their blood sugar drops but their insulin levels stay the same, meaning dairy lowers blood sugar through a process that does not involve increasing insulin.
In healthy young adults, swapping carbohydrate-rich breakfast foods for one serving of dairy products increases amino acid levels after eating, lowers blood glucose, increases feelings of fullness, and reduces markers of bone breakdown and parathyroid hormone over five hours.
Mammalian dairy products have biological properties that increase energy intake in infants by providing concentrated calories and reducing signals that tell the body to stop eating.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making health decisions.