Association of Self‐Reported Oat and Milk Consumption with Markers of Cardiovascular Disease

Abstract

BackgroundConsumption of oats has been shown to reduce cardiovascular disease risk. Milk consumption is also associated with certain health benefits and these may also include reduction of risk for cardiovascular disease.ObjectiveTo evaluate the association of oat consumption, with or without concurrent milk consumption on the same day, with cardiovascular disease risk factors.MethodsNational Health and Nutrition Examination Survey Data (1999–2014) was used. Oat and milk consumption was identified from 24‐hour recall data and intakes were classified as (1) no oat, no milk, (2) yes oat, no milk, (3) no oat, yes milk, or (4) yes oat, yes milk. Linear regression was used to evaluate relationship of intake categories with CVD risk factors. Regression analyses were adjusted for demographics, smoking, saturated fat, fiber, and fruit and vegetable intake. We used no oat/no milk as a reference interval to assess the effects of oat, milk and oat with milk consumption on markers of CVD. The oat/no milk group was then used as the reference standard to further determine if a synergistic relationship between concurrent oat and milk consumption existed past that of regular oat consumption alone.ResultsSelf‐reported oat intake was associated with improvements in some biomarkers of CVD risk. A statistically significant decrease in the incidence of abdominal obesity measured as waist circumference [OR, 0.57 (95% CI, 0.44 – 0.75)] and 3+ risk factors of metabolic syndrome [OR, 0.69 (95% CI, 0.55 – 0.87)] was observed in the yes oat/yes milk group as compared to non‐consumers (no oat/no milk). Similar effects were also found in the yes oat/no milk group. When the yes oat/no milk group was used as the reference standard we did not find any additional synergistic effects of concurrent consumption of oats with milk (yes oat/yes milk) on markers of CVD.ConclusionThese results are consistent with clinical data that show oat consumption to be associated with improvements in some biomarkers of CVD risk, however the addition of milk to a diet that already contains oats does not appear to be beneficially or adversely associated with CVD risk factors in this self‐reported dataset.Support or Funding InformationFunding for this research was provided by PepsiCo Global R&D.