A bowl of yogurt at breakfast is getting fresh attention from researchers in Japan.

A new study found that eating plain probiotic yogurt every morning, alongside moderate exercise and a healthy diet, slowed aging by 2.2 percent over 12 weeks.

The research, published in the journal Aging, followed 48 overweight Japanese men aged 50 to 74.

Half the group were told to do “moderate exercise” in the form of a brisk walk or using a stair climber three times a week. They were also told to cut out sugary drinks, snacking and overeating, and were given a yogurt to eat for breakfast every day.

The yogurt contained the BB536 strain of probiotic, which the article said has been proven to improve gut health.

The other half continued with their usual habits and acted as the control group.

Researchers measured how fast the participants were aging using a tool that can offer a single timepoint measurement.

After 12 weeks, the group following the healthier routine was aging more slowly than the control group, with a 2.2 percent reduction in the pace of aging. The article said that result was considered statistically significant, especially over such a short period.

The finding was also independent of weight loss and the number of exercise sessions logged, which the article said indicated the probiotic could be having more of an impact than expected.

Researchers said they could not link the reduction in aging directly to yogurt alone because the study group made three lifestyle changes: diet, exercise and a probiotic.

They also noted the study cohort was small and that more research would be needed to confirm the findings.

However, the researchers wrote that “neither weight loss alone nor exercise habits alone fully account for the observed slowing of biological aging,”

They concluded that adding “microbiota-derived anti-inflammatories” like probiotic yogurt to your diet, while maintaining a healthy lifestyle, can slow aging.

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