[Yogurt consumption and reduced risk of overweight and obesity in adults].

Fermented dairy products comprise a large food group in Russia and are an important source of dietary nutrients like protein, calcium, fat. Obesity is a rising public health issue in Russia. Observing the role of fermented dairy in the maintenance of healthy weights is important. Current study objective was to explore the association between obesity/overweight prevalence and yogurt consumption in Russian adults. Data from RLMS-HSE 1994-2012 was used. Primary materials are available on http://www.cpc.unc.edu/projects/rlms-hse, http://www. hse.ru/org/hse/rlms. Data collected included dietary intake by single 24h recalls and anthropometric measures for 72.400 adults (≥ 19 y.o.). Logistic regression models were used to explore the relationships between yogurt consumption and obesity prevalence (BMI > 30.0 compared with. 18.5-25.0), controlling for age and gender. Daily average intake (g/day) of yogurt significantly increased from 1994 to 2012. Yogurt consumption decreased over 40 y.o. in both gender. Women yogurt consumption is inversely correlated with the magnitude of the BMI: the consumption of yogurt in women with normal BMI values (> 18.5-25.0) was significantly higher than in women who are overweight and/or obese (BMI > 25.0; or > 30.0). The mean values of BMI in women who ate yogurt, were significantly lower than in women not consuming yogurt. In men, the relationship between consumption of yogurt and BMI is not revealed. Thus, among women, a significant inverse association was observed between yogurt consumption and obesity (OR 0.582, CI 95% 0.497, 0.680; p < 0.001). The observed association between yogurt intake and prevalence of obesity is dependent on gender: yogurt is associated with lower obesity prevalence only in women.