Since consuming regular yogurt has beneficial effects on healthy individuals, and insulin resistance (IR) is a reciprocal pathogenesis of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and metabolic syndrome (MetS), we hypothesize that yogurt can improve IR in patients with NAFLD and MetS.
This study aimed to investigate the effects of yogurt on IR and secondary endpoints (including liver fat, gut microbiota, and serum biomarkers of inflammation and oxidative stress) in obese women with NAFLD and MetS.
One hundred obese women aged 36–66 years with NAFLD and MetS were randomly assigned to consume 220 g/day of regular yogurt or milk every 24 weeks. At baseline and week 24, we measured anthropometric parameters, serum glucose, insulin, lipids, and cytokines in all participants, as well as liver fat and gut microbiota in 20 randomly selected participants from each group.
As a result, 48 participants in the yogurt group and 44 participants in the milk group completed the intervention. Compared with milk, yogurt significantly reduced insulin resistance (-0.53; 95% CI: -1.03, -0.02), fasting insulin (-2.77 mU/L; 95% CI: -4.91, -0.63 mU/L), 2-hour insulin (-25.5 mU/L; 95% CI: -33.0, -17.9 mU/L), 2-hour insulin area under the curve (-29.4 mU/L·h; 95% CI: -44.0, -14.8 mU/L·h), alanine aminotransferase (-4.65 U/L; 95% CI: -8.67, -0.64 U/L), intrahepatic lipids (-3.44%; 95% CI: -6.19%, -0.68%), and liver fat fraction (-3.48%). 95% CI: -6.34%, -0.63%. Yogurt also reduced serum LPS (-0.31 EU/mL; 95% CI: -0.48, -0.14 EU/mL), fibroblast growth factor 21 (-57.76 pg/mL; 95% CI: -86.32, -29.19 pg/mL), lipid and inflammatory and oxidative stress biomarkers, and altered gut microbiota composition. Mechanistic analysis suggests that yogurt can improve insulin resistance (IR) by reducing blood lipids, inflammation, oxidative stress, and LPS.
In summary, the results of this study indicate that yogurt is more effective than milk in improving IR and liver fat in obese Chinese women with NAFLD and MetS, possibly by improving lipid metabolism, reducing inflammation, oxidative stress and LPS, and altering gut microbiota composition.
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