New evidence is emerging about the potential role of calcium and/or dairy products in assisting weight loss.

The first hint that calcium could promote weight loss came during the First IASO Congress on Obesity that was held in South Africa in October 2004. More than one speaker at the Congress mentioned that there was some new evidence linking calcium and/or diary products (which are our best source of dietary calcium), to improved weight loss.

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Six months ago this information was still being offered as tentative advice, but additional studies reported in the latest edition of the Arbor Clinical Nutrition Updates have produced more support for the theory that increasing calcium and dairy intake when slimming, will increase weight loss.

American study on calcium and weight loss
An example of one of these new studies, is an investigation carried out in the USA with 34 overweight subjects who were using an energy-reduced diet to lose weight.

The energy content of the diets had been reduced by 500 kcal a day and subjects were randomly assigned to either eat three servings of low-fat yoghurt or three servings of gelatin a day for 12 weeks. The difference in calcium intake was that the yoghurt subjects ingested 1100 mg a day, while the gelatine subjects only ingested 500 mg of calcium a day.

The subjects who ate yoghurt three times a day lost significantly more body weight, significantly more body fat and experienced significantly greater reductions in waist circumference (a measure that is used to check how much abdominal fat is lost).

This is exciting news and according to Arbor Communications dieticians. Nutritionists are now justified in recommending dairy products as part of a healthy weight reduction programme.

Additional benefits
Besides improved weight loss and body fat reduction, inclusion of fat-free dairy products in slimming diets has the following added advantages:

• prevention of bone loss that accompanies conventional slimming regimens, thus also counteracting osteoporosis
• a reduction in blood pressure for patients with hypertension

How does it work?
At present researchers are not sure why eating more dairy products or calcium will reduce weight. There are various theories, for example that low calcium intakes cause vitamin D to promote fat production and prevent fat breakdown. By increasing calcium intake this negative effect can be counteracted and fat production is reduced, while fat breakdown is promoted.

Other theories state that dairy foods contain conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), which may promote fat breakdown.

So although nutritionists are not quite sure why increasing calcium and/or dairy intake should promote weight loss, the results all point in this direction and can be used to improve the effect of slimming diets.

Diary foods
The following dairy foods can be used to increase your calcium and/or dairy intake when you are slimming:

• Fat-free or skim milk
• Fat-free or skim milk yoghurt (the plain, unflavoured varieties are probably most advantageous as flavoured yoghurts may have a higher energy content)
• Fat-free or low-fat cottage cheese
• Fat-free sour milk or maas

Although other cheeses are also rich in calcium, they are generally high in fat and this high fat content could hamper weight loss.

Fad diets
Most fad diets don't permit the use of dairy products, for example the Atkins diet prohibits the use of milk, yoghurt and cottage cheese. Other extreme diets or semi-starvation diets also tend to cut out all dairy products.

In the light of these new research findings, such prohibitions of the use of dairy foods, are non-productive, and just another indication that these diets are mostly illogical and unbalanced.

What you can do
If you are on a slimming diet that works for you, but you find that your weight loss is slowing down, try adding three servings of fat-free milk, yoghurt or cottage cheese to your diet. You can substitute the dairy products for other protein foods such as meat or eggs.

If you need to lose weight and have problems with high blood pressure, try using the DASH Diet which makes use of plenty of fat-free dairy products and is rich in calcium. You can find the DASH Diet by clicking on 'You Are What You Eat' and 'Hypertension' and 'DASH Diet' in the Diet and Food section.

It is important to check on their calcium and dairy intake. Ironically dairy products are often the first foods that many people cut out of their diets when they want to lose weight. This new research underlines that this is the wrong approach. Don't cut out milk and dairy products ifwhen you want to lose weight. Include these foods but use fat-free or low-fat varieties and you will promote weight loss. - (Dr I.V. van Heerden)

(Reference: Arbor Clinical Nutrition Updates, 2005 (May), Issue 207, 1-3)
 

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