Association of dairy consumption patterns with the incidence of type 2 diabetes: Findings from Alberta's Tomorrow project.

•Observational studies on dairy products and type 2 diabetes neglect consideration of the overall dairy intake habits of people.•It was the first time to analyze people's adherence to three to the three extracted dairy consumption patterns using PCA.•Men with a pattern characterized by high intake of whole milk, regular cheese, and non-fat milk had a lower incidence of T2D.