Metabolic syndrome and dairy product consumption: Where do we stand?

•Controversies about potential biomarkers (15:0, 17:0, trans-16:1n-7) to evaluate dairy product consumption.•Recent data revealed an inverse relation between dairy products consumption and prevalence of metabolic syndrome.•Need for more nutritional interventions to study specific effects of different types of dairy products.•Metabolomics as a potential approach to study health effects of dairy products.

Shifts in food composition and in dietary pattern as well as a modification in physical activity have led to increasing prevalence of overweight and obesity. Obesity is often accompanied by a cluster of metabolic abnormalities, termed the metabolic syndrome. Milk is an essential component of the human diet, and several dairy products resulting from processing of milk such as cheese, yogurt and dairy desserts are being consumed by millions of people worldwide. Consequently many studies were carried out on dairy products and their effect on body weight and fat, diabetes, metabolic syndrome (MetS), cardiovascular health, and bone health.Many epidemiological studies and a few meta-analyses on the relation between dairy product consumption and risk of metabolic syndrome were recently conducted using observational studies published up to March 2015. The evaluation of dairy consumption was carried out using food frequency questionnaires, food records and 24-h recall for most of the analyses so far published. As a general conclusion of the recent data, one may suggest an inverse relation between the consumption of dairy products and the prevalence of metabolic syndrome. However, it is still not very clear if all the dairy products have the same effects.Metabolomic technologies using targeted approaches have been used to unravel the identity of potential biomarkers of dairy product consumption. Some potential biomarkers such as fatty acids (15:0, 17:0, trans-16:1n − 7) have been proposed to evaluate dairy product consumption. However, recently published papers raised concerns about using these fatty acids as potential biomarkers of dairy fat/dairy product intake. On the contrary, little has been published using metabolomic approaches on the potential metabolic effects of dairy products or on the relation between their consumption and the prevalence of metabolic syndrome or the associated pathologies.