Milk for Weight Loss?

The dairy industry has worked hard to tell us that milk is good for us, and hinted – or more than hinted – that milk and dairy products can help you lose weight. In fact, they were sued a couple of years ago for making false claims about this. Now a new study has examined whether calcium and vitamin D supplements have a weight-reduction effect. It’s a large prospective study (over 35,000 postmenopausal women) reported in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

The women were given either 1,000 mg calcium plus 400 IU vitamin D (cholecalciferol) or placebo, daily, for an average of 7 years. Those taking the supplements had a “minimal but consistently favorable difference in weight change”, according to the investigators. They had a higher likelihood of remaining stable or losing weight, compared with the placebo group, but the effect was small.

Obviously, eating a lot of dairy products is not the answer to overweight. But the findings shouldn’t change the recommendation that people should consume 1,200 mg a day of calcium, as recommended by the Food and Nutrition Board of the National Academy of Sciences .