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Can yogurt consumption mitigate rising diabetes and obesity rates?

April 24, 2024

The intake of yogurt declined in the last decade in Argentina while the rates of obesity and diabetes increased. In the context of the global diet, the contribution of a moderate increase of yogurt consumption has the potential to improve up to 10% the nutritional density of the Argentine population’s diet, given its present low diversity and wide gaps in nutritive foods. In this perspective piece, the authors suggest that educating the public to incorporate yogurt as part of a healthy diet may contribute to improving public health through prevention of non-communicable chronic diseases (NCCDs) and the associated costs.

• A group of Argentinian researchers examined the country’s National Survey of Risk Factors (NSRF) to identify temporal trends and the prevalence of NCCDs. The 2019 survey showed that 66.1% of the population was overweight (52% obese), and 12.7% had diabetes or altered blood glucose. Both indicators had increased since the previous survey.
• Concurrently, yogurt consumption has decreased over the past decade in Argentina from 10 kg/person/year to 4 kg/person/year. Dietary guidelines from North American and European countries note that yogurt is recognized for its health benefits related to weight management, reduced hyperglycemia, reduced hypertension, protective properties in the gut, and a healthier microbiota.
• Diet quality data indicates that only 11% of Argentinian households have a high nutritional density and the food gap (the difference between apparent consumption and healthy recommendations) is on average 60% in high nutrient density vegetable foods and 48% in dairy products. The reduction of these gaps would improve the present Argentinian diet and potentially mitigate the rising rates of diabetes and obesity.
• Epidemiological studies have shown that yogurt consumption is associated with reduced BMI, overall obesity, and abdominal obesity. For example, in an economic model for the use of yogurt in type 2 diabetes (T2D) risk reduction in the UK, authors determined that increasing average yogurt consumption by adults by 100 g daily could result in 388,000 fewer people developing T2D in the next 25 years and could save the country’s health system £2.3 billion in direct T2D treatment costs.

Source:

Britos S, et al. (2024, April 15). Frontiers in Nutrition. Yogurt, in the context of a healthy diet, for the prevention and management of diabetes and obesity: a perspective from Argentina. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnut.2024.1373551/full#B5