2nd Summit on Health Effects of Yogurt - Yogurt & metabolic diseases in children - Pr L. Moreno

Luis Moreno, PhD - Public Health, University of Zaragoza, Spain

Although there is no clear evidence of the role of dairy consumption on cardiovascular diseases (CVD) risk development in adults, several studies have suggested dairy consumption to have a protective effect. There is limited information on the relationship between milk and dairy products consumption and CVD risk factors among adolescents. To identify those food groups best discriminating individuals at high/low CVD risk and to investigate the relationship between dairy consumption and CVD risk factors we studied a sample of adolescents (12.5–17.5 years) from eight European cities participating in the cross-sectional (2006–2007) HELENA (Healthy Lifestyle in Europe by Nutrition in Adolescence) study. Diet, waist circumference, skin-fold thickness, systolic blood pressure, insulin resistance, triglycerides, total cholesterol/high-density lipoprotein ratio and cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) were assessed. Individual z-scores of CVD risk factors were summed to compute sex-specific clustered CVD risk scores. Dairy emerged as the food group best discriminating adolescents at low/high CVD risk. In both boys and girls, waist circumference and sum of skin-folds were inversely associated with consumption of milk and milk- and yogurt-based beverages. Moreover, CVD risk score was also inversely associated with overall dairy consumption, but only in girls. This study adds further evidence to the scarce literature on the influence of milk and dairy products on adolescents' cardiovascular health.

About The Yogurt in Nutrition Initiative (YINI)