Work

Causal Effects of Yogurt Intake on Gut Microbiota: A European Mendelian Randomization Study

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Background Yogurt is reported to maintain the balance of gut microbiota and prevent disease, but the causal relationship remains unclear. Methods We selected data from UK Biobank and MiBioGen to perform Mendelian randomization analysis. MR Egger, inverse variance weighted, and so forth were employed to assess the causality between yogurt intake, low‐fat and full‐fat yogurt, and 196 taxa of gut microbiota. Parallelly, low‐fat and full‐fat yogurt were integrated to perform multivariable Mendelian randomization. Then, we summarized preliminary results according to microbiotic taxonomy. Results Statistics hinted at the implicit associations between yogurt intake and Haemophilus (OR = 2.08), Clostridium sensu stricto_1 (OR = 1.84), Peptostreptococcaceae (OR = 1.53), Betaproteobacteria (OR = 0.70), Bilophila (OR = 0.58), and Ruminococcaceae UCG-011 (OR = 0.40), along with the associations between low‐fat yogurt and Eubacterium ruminantium (OR = 2.48), Methanobacteriaceae (OR = 3.06). The findings were causal and consistent, albeit with some false positive rates. Conclusions Yogurt intake suggestively increased the abundance of Haemophilus , Clostridium sensu stricto_1 , and Peptostreptococcaceae and decreased the abundance of Ruminococcaceae UCG-011 , Betaproteobacteria and Bilophila ; low‐fat yogurt suggestively increased the abundance of Eubacterium ruminantium and Methanobacteriaceae .

Source: International Journal of Genomics

Authors: Mengqi Yang, Liping Wang, Peng Zhou, Jiazeng Xia

Institutions: Wuxi No.2 People's Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Jiangnan University

Language: English

Topic: Gut microbiota and health

Subfield: Molecular Biology

Field: Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

Domain: Life Sciences

SDGs: Good health and well-being, Zero hunger

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $2,380

Funder: Jiangsu Commission of Health