Almond milk and cow milk with oatmeal in type 2 diabetes
What it found
In 22 people with type 2 diabetes and overweight or obesity, almond milk with oatmeal gave the same blood sugar response as 2% cow milk over 4 hours.
Carbohydrate-matched 2% milk led to higher insulin and glucagon than almond milk.
What they found
Studies in people
Blood sugar response
There was no difference in the blood sugar response over 4 hours between almond milk, carbohydrate-matched 2% milk, and calorie-matched 2% milk.
Insulin and glucagon
Insulin and glucagon responses were higher after carbohydrate-matched 2% milk than after almond milk. The authors say this may be due to the protein and fat in cow milk.
Other blood markers
There were no differences between the three milks in free fatty acids, triglycerides, leptin, or the gut hormones PYY, GLP-1, GIP, amylin, cholecystokinin, and ghrelin.
Gut hormones and fullness
The authors say almond milk and cow milk produced similar satiety and postprandial metabolic responses, based on the gut hormones measured.
What the authors conclude
“Almond milk does not offer any additional glycemic benefit over 2% milk and does not differ in its postprandial effects on FFAs, serum triglycerides, leptin, and gastrointestinal hormones over 4 h.”
Also in their conclusions
- They conclude that almond milk does not offer any additional glycemic benefit over 2% milk and does not differ in its postprandial effects on free fatty acids, serum triglycerides, leptin, and gastrointestinal hormones over 4 hours.
- They note that carbohydrate-matched 2% milk led to greater insulin and glucagon responses compared to almond milk, and say this warrants further investigation into its long-term implications.
- They call for further longitudinal randomized controlled studies with larger sample sizes.
How it was done
Almond milk is often marketed as a better choice than cow milk, but its effect on blood sugar after a meal was unclear. The authors wanted to compare almond milk with 2% milk, matched for either carbohydrate or calories, when eaten with oatmeal.
They studied 22 people with type 2 diabetes and overweight or obesity, average age 66, in a crossover trial at Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston. Each person ate oatmeal with almond milk, carbohydrate-matched 2% milk, or calorie-matched 2% milk on three separate days, in random order, and had blood tests for 4 hours after each meal.
What it can’t tell you
- This was a single-meal study, so it cannot show the long-term effects of drinking almond milk or 2% cow milk on blood sugar control or other metabolic outcomes.
- The study was small and open-label, so it may have missed small differences between the milks.
Who paid
- Funding
- Funded by NIDDK NIH HHS; National Dairy Council (from the PubMed record).
- Conflicts
- O.H. receives research support from Eli Lilly and Company, Novo Nordisk, and Cambridge Medical Technology Inc., and is on the advisory board of Abbott Nutrition. J.M consults for Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly and Company and has equity interest in Sequel Med Tech. S.D., M.A.-B., A.A.B.A., and A.M. have no disclosures to report.
- Authors work at
- Joslin Diabetes Center, USA; Harvard Medical School, USA
The paper
- Title
- Effect of Almond Milk Versus Cow Milk on Postprandial Glycemia, Lipidemia, and Gastrointestinal Hormones in Patients with Overweight or Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes: A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial
- Type
- Randomised controlled trial
- Evidence
- Studies in people
- Summarised from
- Full text
- Licence
- CC BY. Words in quotation marks are the authors’; the rest is our summary.
- Cite
- Dhaver S, Al-Badri M, Mitri J, Barbar Askar AA, Mottalib A, Hamdy O (2025). Effect of Almond Milk Versus Cow Milk on Postprandial Glycemia, Lipidemia, and Gastrointestinal Hormones in Patients with Overweight or Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes: A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial. Nutrients. doi:10.3390/nu17132092Free full textPubMed 40647197DOI
Summary written 30 Sep 2026. Check it against the paper before it changes what you eat. How we summarise papers · Report an error