Hubert Cormier is a registered dietitian from Canada and he’s currently enrolled in a doctoral program that he pursues at the Institute of Nutrition and Functional Foods (INAF). He is also doing several TV or radio interviews or acting as a spokesperson for the food industry or others initiatives related to the field of nutrition. Moreover, he is a best-selling author and very active on social media platforms such as Facebook , Twitter and Instagram.

Your last research, published in the European Journal of Nutrition in 2015, examined whether yogurt intake is associated with a healthy dietary pattern. Do you think that yogurt can drive a better diet quality?

Certainly! As shown by previous studies, yogurt was always associated with a better diet quality. In our study, we had data available from food frequency questionnaires and we have decided to look at dietary patterns. There are two main patterns, namely the Prudent and the Western dietary patterns, which are characterized by the different food groups. Each participant has a score for each pattern and this score reflects how well you adhere or not to each pattern.

First, we have found that yogurt was a contributor to the Prudent dietary pattern along with fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, non-hydrogenated fats, fish and other seafood. Then, we observed that consumers of yogurt had a positive Prudent dietary pattern mean score, while the opposite trend was observed in non-consumers of yogurt. Finally, we have found that yogurt consumption may be associated with lower anthropometric indicators such as waist circumference, waist-to-hip ratio in addition to a lower body weight and with a more beneficial cardio-metabolic risk profile in overweight/obese individuals.

You are a best-selling author and your last book, “Not Guilty: Free yourself from your food guilt” is already a success in Canada. According to your experience, can we assume that yogurt is a non-guilty snack? And if so, what are the key drivers?

I do believe that yogurt is a non-guilty snack for sure or at least, is a good substitute to your chocolate cake or chips in the evening! It’s packed with proteins, calcium and other components that make yogurt really interesting such as bioactive peptides, branched-chain amino acids and milk fat. Also, I really love yogurt for its versatility, which I really think is one of the key drivers of yogurt consumption.

You can eat yogurt alone, with fruits, with a layer of caramel sauce, with cookie crumbs, with nuts or even in a more salty way with spices, garlic and Sriracha sauce to came up with the best dip ever!

Adherents of The Paleo Diet exclude all dairy products. What’s Right and Wrong About Eating Like a Caveman? Is yogurt interesting for people who dislike milk?

I’m not really into the Paleo Diet. Though, I do understand that some people are interested in this diet, but I’m pretty sure that you can’t do it for a lifetime, and that is my principal concern about it. As a registered dietitian, I’ll continue to support having good lifestyle habits and a good, varied and balanced diet which where the Paleo Diet often fails by being too strict.

Some of the principles are good whatsoever, but the lack of diversity is sad. I cannot go a day without eating my Greek yogurt parfait or my bean salad as the perfect side dish. Yogurt is interesting even if you dislike milk. If you’re lactose intolerant, you can even eat yogurt for breakfast without having digestive health problems because of the probiotics. Sure, some are more sensible and may experienced gas or bloating, but they can always choose to go with lactose-free products.

New research in Spain found an inverse association between high, yogurt and fruit combined consumption and the development of Metabolic Syndrome (MetS). Yogurt consumption is also inversely associated with central adiposity, one of the five MetS criteria.

MetS is known as a combination of metabolic abnormalities (low levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, hypertriglyceridemia, high blood pressure, impaired glucose metabolism and central adiposity) that can increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases and type 2 diabetes over time. The incidence of this condition has grown worldwide (around 25%) because of increased obesity and sedentary lifestyles.

A cohort study in Spain with 8,063 participants free of MetS was set up to assess the association between total, whole-fat and low-fat yogurt consumption and the risk of MetS. After 6 years, the follow up conducted 306 incidences of MetS. Frequent yogurt consumption has a non-significant inverse association with MetS.

Mix yogurt and fruit

However, total and whole fat yogurt consumption was significantly associated with a 15% reduced risk of central adiposity (one of the parameters of MetS). More interestingly, yogurt and fruit consumption can protect against the risk of overweight : a combined exposure of high yogurt consumption (more than 7 portions/week) and high fruit consumption (more than 265g/day) is significantly associated with a lower risk of  developing MetS (-39%).

The authors concluded that high consumption of both yogurt and fruit exhibit a significantly lower risk of MetS compared to low consumption.

Source: Carmen Sayón-Orea1 BMC Public Health 2015, 15:170  doi:10.1186/s12889-015-1518-7

As yogurt has been positively associated with food quality, authors of the British Nutrition Foundation recently published an article in the Nutrition Bulletin on the contribution of yogurt consumption to nutrient intake across the life course. They concluded that yogurt has a small but valuable impact on nutrition intake, particularly for young children.

Yogurt is known as a nutrient dense food within the dairy food group. The aim of this study was to examine yogurt consumption in the UK and consider its contribution to nutrient intakes at different life stages.

The authors used national nutrition survey data of the UK for their analysis. Results unveiled that yogurt makes a small but valuable contribution to nutrient intakes in young children, particularly for vitamin B₁₂ riboflavin, calcium , iodine and phosphorus. As children aged, the contribution of yogurt to micronutrient intake decreased, reflecting the increasing amounts and variety of foods in the diet, but also snacking behaviors.

Look for iodine and calcium

As adolescents go through the final stages of the growing process, they need certain nutrients for normal growth and development. Yogurt has a place in teen’s healthy eating plan because it supplies several key vitamins and minerals. These new data showed that replacing high fat and sugar snacks or desserts by extra low-fat yogurt could improve their low intake of calcium and iodine, which are of concern in some teenage diets in UK.

During adulthood, as intake was higher among women, yogurt makes a greater contribution to their micronutrient intakes compared with men, providing more than 5% of the reference nutrient intakes (RNIs) for phosphorus, iodine, calcium, vitamin B₁₂ and riboflavin.

Source: E. B. Williams et al. Nutrition Bulletin Volume 40, Issue 1, pages 9–32, March 2015

Making small, consistent changes to the types of protein- and carbohydrate-rich foods we eat may have a big impact on long-term weight gain, according to a new study led by researchers at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science & Policy at Tufts University. The results emphasizes specific protein-rich foods like fish, nuts, and yogurt that prevent weight gain. This study adds to growing new research that counting calories is not the most effective strategy for long-term weight management and prevention.

Based on more than 16 years of follow-up among 120,000 men and women from 3 long-term studies of U.S. health professionals, the authors first found that diets with a high glycemic load (GL) from eating refined grains, starches, and sugars were associated with more weight gain. Next, the authors determined whether changes in GL impacted the relationship between major protein-rich foods and long-term weight gain. They first looked at the relationship between changes in protein foods and weight gain during every four-years of follow-up. Several key results were seen:

• Increasing intakes of red meat and processed meat were most strongly associated with weight gain.
• Increasing intakes of yogurt, seafood, skinless chicken, and nuts were most strongly associated with weight loss – the more people ate, the less weight they gained.
• Increasing other dairy products, including full-fat cheese, whole milk, and low-fat milk, did not significantly relate to either weight gain or weight loss.

According to Jessica Smith, first author, the fat content of dairy products did not seem to be important for weight gain. In fact, when people consumed more low-fat dairy products, they actually increased their consumption of carbohydrates, which may promote weight gain. This suggests that people compensate, over years, the lower level calories in low-fat dairy by increasing their carbohydrates intake.

Combination of foods makes a big difference

The authors also noted several synergistic relationships between changes in protein-rich foods and changes in GL of the diet. For example, increasing servings of foods linked to weight gain, like red meat, and at the same time increasing GL by eating more low quality carbohydrates like white bread, strengthened the foods’ association with weight gain. But decreasing GL by eating, for example, red meat with vegetables, mitigated some of that weight gain.

For fish, nuts, yogurt and other foods associated with weight loss, decreasing GL enhanced their weight loss effect, while increasing GL decreased their weight loss effect. Yogurt and fruits are then such an ideal combination on a daily habit. Notably, although other foods like eggs and cheese were not linked to weight change on average, when servings of these foods were increased in combination with increased GL, they were linked to weight gain. On the other hand, when servings of eggs and cheese were increased in combination with decreased GL, the participants actually lost weight.

These findings suggest we should not only emphasize specific protein-rich foods like fish, nuts, and yogurt to prevent weight gain, but also focus on avoiding refined grains, starches, and sugars in order to maximize the benefits of these healthful protein-rich foods, create new benefits for other foods like eggs and cheese, and reduce the weight gain associated with meats.

Source: Smith JD, Hou T, Ludwig DS, Rimm EB, Willett W, Hu FB and Mozaffarian D. “Changes in intake of protein foods, carbohydrate amount and quality, and long-term weight change: results from 3 prospective cohorts.” The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2015;101:1-9. Published online ahead of print April 8, 2015.

This WCO-IOF-ESCEO 2015 Congress*, which was held in Milan, from March 26 to March 29 is the largest event worldwide, fully dedicated to the clinical and economic aspects of osteoporosis, osteoarthritis and musculoskeletal diseases and gathers more than 3500 delegates. As Western diet permeates more of the globe and the population continues to grow, it is meaningful to study the impact of these changes on bone health as diet is one of the few major modifiable factors which in turn affects healthcare costs. Calcium, vitamin D, and protein intake continued to dominate the discussion. The slideshow thereafter allow the reader to capture the new messages and to analyze the new scientific data presented by Professor Rene Rizzoli, Professor of Medicine at the University Hospital of Geneva, Switzerland, in this field during this YINI’s symposium.

 *WORLD CONGRESS ON OSTEOPOROSIS, OSTEOARTHRITIS AND MUSCULOSKELETAL DISEASES MARCH 26-29, 2015 | MILAN ITALY MiCo – Fiera Milano Congressi www.wco-iof-esceo.org

This study suggests that a high consumption of dairy products, and particularly yogurt, may be protective against type 2 diabetes in elderly individuals at high cardiovascular risk.

The study published by Jordi Salas-Salvado’s team from Universitat Rovira i Virgili, in Spain, confirms the existing results and namely those of the two most recent studies in that field of research. In US,  Chen et al. showed that yogurt consumption was associated with a risk reduction  of type 2 Diabetes of 17%  and in UK, O’Connor et al showed that yogurt consumption was associated with a larger risk reduction of type 2 diabetes of 28%.

A specific effect of yogurt