Influence of long-term yoghurt consumption in young adults

There has been increasing interest in the relationships between nutrition and immunity and the hypothesis that consumption of high amounts of specific food products might reduce an individual's susceptibility to the establishment and/or progression of immunological disease. While in select cases an increased consumption of specific food products may improve health status, chronic consumption of large amounts of a specific food may be detrimental to health. The present study evaluated the influence of chronic high levels of yoghurt consumption (450 g per day for 4 months) on haematological and blood chemistry values in healthy young adults. Yoghurt was examined due to the widespread belief that the chronic consumption of this food product reduces an individual's susceptibility to a number of diseases. No negative side-effects were found in any parameter, including cholesterol, even at the high levels of yoghurt consumption used in this study. However, yoghurt consumption was associated with a significant and potentially beneficial increase in serum ionized calcium levels. Furthermore, there was an interesting increased production of γ-interferon by isolated T cells in subjects consuming yoghurt containing live cultures.