A study looking at the protective effects of fatty acids in milk against the development of allergic diseases in childhood have found that women who ate low-fat yoghurt with fruit at least once a day were 1.6 times more likely to have children who developed asthma by age 7 years.

Researchers used registries and questionnaires in the Danish Birth Cohort to monitor the prevalence of asthma and allergic rhinitis. They suggest that the non-fat components of the yoghurt may contribute to this risk, and that eating low-fat yoghurt may indicate other dietary and lifestyle factors, which means their children have a higher risk to asthma and other respiratory diseases, unrelated to the low-fat yoghurt itself.

Source: European Respiratory Society’s Annual Congress (P315) 

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First Published in September 2011

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