Synbiotic Yogurt and Calcium Absorption in Adult Women

In adult women, short-term daily ingestion of a synbiotic yogurt increased calcium absorption compared to a control yogurt, says an article published in The Journal of Nutrition on 12th April, 2022.

Foods that include both probiotics (synbiotics) and prebiotics may improve calcium absorption. As a result, Rafael Cornes and colleagues undertook this study to assess the acute effect on calcium absorption in young adult women of consuming (185 mL) a synbiotic (SYN) containing inulin (4g) and Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (>1 107/CFU/mL) compared to a control (CON) yogurt.

For this study, adult women with normal weight (25.0 ± 3.5 y, n = 30) took part in a 3-week cross-over research comparing SYN against CON intake on a daily basis. At baseline, dietary habits, bone mineral density (BMD), calcium biomarkers, and serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] were all examined. Calcium absorption was measured using a ⁴²Ca oral tracer following each step of the investigation. Cumulative tracer recovery was assessed in urine pools taken 0–4h, 0–24h, and 0–36h after treatment. The key result was the SYN/CON tracer ratio from the timed-urine-pools. A favorable response to SYN was characterized as a SYN/CON tracer ratio greater than one from 0 to 36 hours.

Key Findings

• Net ⁴²Ca recovered increased with time in both the SYN and CON urine pools after dosing (Friedman, P < 0.001), with a trend for higher ⁴²Ca restoration in the 0–36 hours urine pool post-dosing in the SYN (1.14%) study compared to the CON (0.90%).
• The bulk of total tracer (86 percent) was retrieved in the 0–24 hours pool for CON, but only 50% of total tracer was retrieved in the 0–24h pool for SYN.
• In the 0–36h pool, the SYN/CON tracer ratio (1.24) was more than one.
• Approximately two-thirds (n = 19) of the women investigated responded to the SYN therapy.
• Responders consumed more vegetables (P = 0.03), tended to consume more potassium and calcium (P = 0.08), and also had higher overall body BMD (P = 0.09) than non-responders.

In conclusion, given the observed temporal delays in tracer recovery, calcium absorption was most likely enhanced in the large intestine.

Reference

Cornes, R., Sintes, C., Peña, A., Albin, S., O'Brien, K. O., Abrams, S. A., & Donangelo, C. M. (2022). Daily Intake of a Functional Synbiotic Yogurt Increases Calcium Absorption in Young Adult Women. In The Journal of Nutrition. Oxford University Press (OUP). https://doi.org/10.1093/jn/nxac088