Yogurt consumption may prolong life in women

Women who regularly eat yogurt may live a longer life, suggests a study, which reports an association between yogurt consumption and lower mortality risk among women.

The authors followed 82,348 women in the Nurses’ Health Study and 40,278 men in the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study, without a history of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer in 1980 (women) or 1986 (men), until 2012.

A total of 20,831 women and 12,397 men died during 3,354,957 person-years of follow-up. In multivariable-adjusted analysis, yogurt consumption in women correlated with a reduced mortality risk compared with no yogurt intake: ≤1–3 servings/mo (hazard ratio [HR], 0.89, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.86–0.93); 1 serving/wk (HR, 0.85, 95 percent CI, 0.81–0.89); 2–4 servings/wk (HR, 0.88, 95 percent CI, 0.88–0.91), and >4 servings/wk (HR, 0.91, 95 percent CI, 0.85–0.98; p_trend=0.34).

The corresponding HRs for yogurt consumption in men were as follows: 0.99 (95 percent CI, 0.94–1.03), 0.98 (95 percent CI, 0.91–1.05), 1.04 (95 percent CI, 0.98–1.10) and 1.05 (95 percent CI, 0.95–1.16).

Yogurt consumption was also inversely associated with cancer mortality (multivariable-adjusted HR comparing extreme categories, 0.87, 95 percent CI, 0.78–0.98; p_trend=0.04) and CVD mortality (HR, 0.92, 95 percent CI, 0.79–1.08; p_trend=0.41) in women, but the latter was attenuated in the adjusted model.

Replacing 1 serving/d of yogurt with 1 serving/d of nuts (women and men) or whole grains (women) resulted in a lower risk of all-cause mortality. On the other hand, substituting yogurt with red meat, processed meat (women and men), and milk or other dairy foods (women) correlated with a greater mortality.

“Given that no clear dose–response relation was apparent, this result must be interpreted with caution,” the authors said.