Abstract
Background: Oat consumption has been suggested to decrease the risk of cardiovascular disease; oats are frequently co-consumed with milk, but also water and other products.
Methods: We evaluated associations of 24-hour self-reported oat and cow's milk consumption with cardiovascular disease risk factors using National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (1999-2014) data. Daily oat and milk consumptions were classified as (1) no oats, no milk; (2) yes oats, no milk; (3) no oats, yes milk; or (4) yes oats, yes milk. We used no oats/no milk as a reference to assess the effects of oats, milk, and oat with milk consumption on markers of cardiovascular disease (CVD). The yes oats/no milk group was then used as the reference to further determine if a relationship between oat and milk consumption on the same day existed past that of previously reported oat consumption alone.
Results: Self-reported oat intake was associated with improvements in some biomarkers of CVD risk. The prevalence of abdominal obesity measured as waist circumference was lower (odds ratio, 0.57; 95% confidence interval, 0.41-0.73), and fewer than 3+ risk factors of metabolic syndrome (odds ratio, 0.66; 95% confidence interval, 0.51-0.85) were observed in the yes oats/yes milk group as compared with nonconsumers (no oats/no milk). Similar effects were found in the yes oats/no milk group. We did not find any synergistic effects of self-reported consumption of both milk and oats during a 24-hour period on markers of CVD.
Conclusions: These results are consistent with clinical data showing oats to be associated with improvement in some biomarkers of CVD risk; however, the addition of milk does not appear to affect CVD risk factors in this cross-sectional data set.