Yogurt consumption for metabolic diseases
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Full-fat dairy products are inversely associated with obesity prevalence
Recent research indicates that increasing consumption of dairy foods may have the potential to lower the prevalence of global and abdominal obesity.
This cross-sectional study investigated whether dairy food consumption was associated with the prevalence of global and abdominal obesity in the 1352 participants in the ‘Observation of Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Luxembourg’ survey.
Total dairy intake was inversely associated with the likelihood of global obesity (-49%). But above all it is the consumption of milk and full-fat dairy products that, in this population, reduces long term weight gain in the highest consumers.
Participants in the highest tertile of full-fat dairy intakes (milk, cheese, yogurt) had a significantly lower likelihood of being obese (-45%) or displaying abdominal obesity (-35%), compared with those in the lowest intake tertile, after full adjustment for confounding factors.
Calcium in dairy products may help prevent obesity in Korea
Asian populations are not getting enough calcium. A series of studies is currently drawing attention to the benefits of milk and dairy products in relation to diseases that are gaining prevalence in Asia as well and do not only affect other continents: osteoporosis, diabetes, obesity, etc. This study investigates the association between dairy products and calcium intake and obesity in 7173 Korean adults aged 19-64 with a relatively low intake of dairy products.
Results show that a higher frequency of dairy product intake including milk and yogurt was associated with a 37% lower incidence of obesity. Higher calcium intake from dairy products as well as total dietary calcium intake was associated with a 17% decreased incidence of obesity. The associations appeared to be stronger in women than in men.
Even though dairy product intake was much lower than that in Western countries, this data suggests that high consumption of dairy products is associated with a lower prevalence of obesity and that calcium in dairy products may be one of the components contributing to the association in Korean adults.
Source: Lee HJ | Cho JI | Lee HS | Kim CI | Cho E. PLoS One 2014; 9(6): e99085.
3 portions of dairy per day: a simple way to combat metabolic syndrome?
Metabolic syndrome, characterized by abdominal obesity, dyslipidemia, hypertension, and hyperglycaemia, affects 34 percent of the U.S. adult population. MetS has been demonstrated to be affected by dietary components. Epidemiological data generally shows that there is an inverse correlation between dairy consumption and metabolic syndrome.
Clinical studies have also shown associations between increased dairy intake and the lowering of one or several parameters of metabolic syndrome including weight and waist circumference, blood pressure, dyslipidemia and hyperglycaemia. Additional benefits of dairy have been found in the form of maintaining vascular function and decreasing hyperglycaemia and inflammation, as well as reductions in type 2 diabetes.
Several of the components of dairy products may explain how they protect the heart and metabolism. For example, calcium has been postulated to reduce body weight by modulating vitamin D concentrations in plasma and therefore attenuating intracellular effects of calcium in activating genes involved in fatty acid synthesis and reducing those involved in lipolysis.
Peptides present in milk have been associated with the inhibition of the angiotensin-converting enzyme and therefore with reductions in blood pressure. Branched chain amino acids may increase post-prandial insulin secretion and regulate plasma glucose levels, and leucine, an abundant amino acid in milk, may be responsible for decreased plasma glucose through modulation of mTOR.
Therefore, through different proposed mechanisms, dairy nutrients may target all the components of metabolic syndrome. Additionally, including about 3 servings of dairy in the diet per day only requires slight dietary modifications, making it an easy lifestyle change to maintain.
Source: Dugan CE | Fernandez ML. Yale J Biol Med 2014; 87(2): 135-147.
Can dairy products slow down the effects of Alzheimers?
Milk and dairy intake was estimated in 1081 individuals aged 60 and older without dementia, using a 70-item semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire grouped into quartiles. Over 17 years of follow-up, 303 subjects developed all-cause dementia; 166 had Alzheimer’s disease and 98 had vascular dementia. After adjustments for age and sex, the incidence of all-cause dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, and vascular dementia significantly decreased as milk and dairy intake level increased.
After adjusting for potential confounding factors, the linear relationship between milk and dairy intake and development remained significant only for Alzheimer’s disease. The risk of Alzheimer’s disease was also significantly lower in the second, third, and fourth quartiles of milk and dairy intake than in the first quartile. Together these results indicate that diet can and must constitute an important factor in the prevention of cognitive decline.
Source: Ozawa M et al. J Am Geriatr Soc 2014; 62(7): 1224-30.
High protein diets lead to lower blood pressure
One of three U.S. adults has hypertension and 78.6 million are clinically obese, a risk factor for the development of hypertension. Because of the strain that it puts on blood vessel walls, high blood pressure is one of the most common risk factors of stroke and an accelerator of multiple forms of heart disease, especially when paired with excess body weight.
The study, published in the American Journal of Hypertension, by researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM), found participants consuming the highest amount of protein (an average of 100 g protein/day) had a 40 percent lower risk of having high blood pressure compared to the lowest intake level. In general, these beneficial effects were evident for both overweight (BMI ≥25 kg/m2) and normal weight (BMI
“These results provide no evidence to suggest that individuals concerned about the development of HBP should avoid dietary protein. Rather, protein intake may play a role in the long-term prevention of HBP,” explained corresponding author Lynn Moore, associate professor of medicine at BUSM. “This growing body of research on the vascular benefits of protein, including this study, suggest we need to revisit optimal protein intake for optimal heart health,” she added.
Source: Buendia JR et al. Am J Hypertens (2014) doi: 10.1093/ajh/hpu157 First published online: September 6, 2014
Excluding dairy products from our diet does not necessarily mitigate climate change
A healthy diet can be achieved through various food combinations, which are associated with different environmental impacts, like greenhouse gas emission (GHGE).
Current dietary guidelines are based on nutrient recommendations for health and do not account for the environmental aspects of the diet. The present danish study highlights the importance of examining these two aspects together when considering future dietary recommendations for a sustainable diet, as well as alternative food choices.
The authors created 8 dietary scenarios with different quantity of dairy products using data from the Danish National Dietary Survey (1995–2006). Nutrient composition and GHGE data for 71 highly consumed foods were used to estimate GHGE and nutritional status for each dietary scenario. An index was used to estimate nutrient density in relation to nutritional recommendation and climate impact for solid food items: the Nutrient Density of Climate Impact (NDCI) index. High index values were those with the highest nutrient density scores in relation to the GHGE.
Higher protein, higher GHGE
Results showed that the high-dairy scenario was 27% higher in protein, 13% higher in vitamin D; 55% higher in calcium; 48% higher in riboflavin and 18% higher in selenium than the non-dairy scenario. The estimated GHGE for the average-dairy, high-dairy, milk-products, cheese-products, and non-dairy diets ranged from 4,340 to 4,826 g CO2e per day with the highest GHGE in cheese-products and lowest GHGE in milk-products For soy drink, the estimated values were 3,620 g CO2e per day.
For the vegetarian and vegan diets, the estimated GHGE were 3,063 and 2,414 g CO2e per day, respectively. The average dairy diet resulted in 48% (2,217 g CO2e per day) higher GHGE compared to the vegan diet and 34% higher GHGE (1,568 g CO2e per day) compared to the vegetarian diet.
Consider the nutritional value
However, when combining nutritional value and climate impact using the NDCI index, the ranking of food items changes and values for animal-based and plant-based products are more similar. The index values for cod, pork, cheese, chicken, brown rice, pasta, and potatoes were quite similar (between 0.19 and 0.35) despite very different nutrient density values, reflecting different GHGE values. Cheese has the highest nutrient density value compared to all the other food items.
This study shows that reducing consumption of food items with high or relative high GHGE is not necessarily the best approach to decreasing diet-related GHGE. If a product is replaced by food with lower energy density, the quantity needed to compensate for the caloric loss is greater than the quantity removed. This may result in a higher diet-related GHGE despite the lower GHGE per kg of the substituted product.
When optimizing a diet with regard to sustainability, it is crucial to account for the nutritional value and not solely focus on impact per kg product.
Source: Bruun Werner L et al. Food Nutr Res 2014 ; 58: 20687.
Watch a related video from THE 2ND GLOBAL SUMMIT ON THE HEALTH EFFECTS OF YOGURT (Interview with Prof. Toon Van Hooijdonck, The Netherlands).
The relationship between saturated fat and diabetes may be more complex than previously thought
According to the results of a large international study published in the journal Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology, saturated fatty acids can be associated with both an increased and decreased risk of developing T2DM, depending on the type of fatty acids present in the blood.
In the EPIC-InterAct Study, a team of researchers led by the Medical Research Council (MRC) Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge set out to examine the relationship between blood levels of nine different saturated fatty acids and the risk of developing type 2 diabetes in later life.
The researchers looked at 12,403 people who developed type 2 diabetes from among a group of 340,234 adults across eight European countries. Using a sophisticated method of high-speed blood analysis, they determined the proportion of each of the nine fatty acids in blood samples from the study participants and related this to later incidence of type 2 diabetes.
They found that saturated fatty acids with an even number of carbon atoms in their chain (14, 16 and 18 carbon atoms) were associated with a higher risk of type 2 diabetes, while saturated fatty acids with an odd number (15 and 17) were associated with a lower risk. Therefore, individual saturated fatty acids are not all the same.
Odd-chain saturated fatty acids are well-established markers of eating dairy fats, which is consistent with several recent studies, including a study from the same team, that has indicated a protective effect against type 2 diabetes from eating yogurt and other dairy products. In contrast, the situation for even-chain saturated fatty acids is more complex.
As well as being present in fatty diets, these blood fatty acids can also be made within the body through a process which is stimulated by the intake of carbohydrates and alcohol.
Adapted from a press release by the University of Cambridge.
MyNewGut: a project to understand the gut microbiome’s influence on health
The MyNewGut project is a multidisciplinary research consortium designed to make findings in basic human microbiome science useful for promoting healthier lifestyles to the public.
The consortium is led by Dr Yolanda Sanz of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). The project brings together 30 partners from 15 countries including experts in microbiology, nutrition, physiology, immunology, brain research, computational modelling and ‘omics’ technologies, such as metagenomics and metabolomics, from EU and non-EU countries.
The MyNewGut Project, which receives funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme, will research in particular how the microbiota of the human gut (microbiome) and its genome influence obesity, behavioural and lifestyle-related disorders and vice versa. It also aims to identify specific dietary strategies to improve the long-term health of the population.
See more at: http://www.mynewgut.eu/home
Keep smiling : yogurt reduces depressive symptoms during pregnancy
This cross-sectional study included a cohort of 1745 pregnant Japanese women. Dietary intake during the preceding month was assessed using a self-administered diet history questionnaire. Scores of 16 or higher on the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale denoted depressive symptoms. Various adjustments were made for different confounding factors (age, pregnancy, number of children, history of depression, dietary intake of fish, vitamin D and saturated fatty acids etc.).
Higher intake levels of yogurt and calcium were independently related to a lower prevalence of depressive symptoms during pregnancy, with adjusted odds ratios between extreme quartiles of 0.69 and 0.59 respectively. No relationships were observed between the intake of all dairy products, milk, or cheese and depressive symptoms during pregnancy.
Source: Miyake Y, Tanaka K, Okubo H, Sasaki S, Arakawa M. Intake of dairy products and calcium and prevalence of depressive symptoms during pregnancy in Japan: a cross-sectional study. BJOG 2014; DOI: 10.1111/1471-0528.12972.
