Healthy Weight: Results from Studies in Adults

Epidemiological studies suggest that over time, adults who consume a diet low in calcium and milk products diet tend to gain more weight and/or body fat than those with higher intakes.^1-9

The Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) Study showed that overweight young adults who consumed the most milk products (≥ 5 servings/daily) gained the least weight over a 10-year period.⁹ Whether the milk products were regular or low-fat did not appear to be a significant factor in this or other studies^.3,10-13

Data from the Quebec Family Study also demonstrated that women who consumed diets low in calcium and milk products had greater body mass indexes, body weight, percentage body fat and waist circumference than those on diets higher in calcium primarily from milk products.⁵

Randomized controlled trials designed to examine weight reduction have suggested that the consumption of three servings of milk products is associated with greater loss of both body fat and body weight than the consumption of a diet low in calcium or milk products.^14-16In a 24-week trial, 34 obese but otherwise healthy African American adults were randomized to diets differing in milk product intake but equivalent in calories, fat, carbohydrates and protein.¹⁶ Those in the high-dairy group (1,200 mg calcium including 3 servings of milk products/day) had significantly greater decreases in total body fat, trunk fat and body weight (secondary to energy restriction) than those in the high-calcium diet.¹⁶

The strongest evidence to date of a link between weight and calcium and/or milk product consumption originates from the landmark Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) Study, published in 2007.¹⁷This was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of 36,282 postmenopausal women followed for three to seven years. The objective of this study was to test the hypothesis that calcium and vitamin D are associated with less weight gain in postmenopausal women. This study demonstrated that calcium and vitamin D helped prevent or limit weight gain, primarily in women with baseline calcium intakes below the recommended intake of 1,200 mg per day.¹⁷

In studies that adjusted for the potential confounding of other food groups^9,12,18 or energy,^2,3,5,9 the inverse relationship between milk products and body weight and/or body fat remained significant.

References

Marques-Vidal P et al. Milk intake is inversely related to obesity in men and in young women: data from the Portuguese Health Interview Survey 1998-1999. Int J Obes 2006;30:88-93.
Loos RJ et al. Calcium intake is associated with adiposity in black and white men and white women of the Heritage Family Study. J Nutr 2004;134:1772-1778.
Mirmiran P et al. Dairy consumption and body mass index: an inverse relationship. Int J Obes 2005;9:115-121.
Newby PK et al. Food patterns measured by factor analysis and anthropometric changes in adults. Am J Clin Nutr 2004;80:504-513.
Jacqmain M et al. Calcium intake, body composition, and lipoprotein-lipid concentrations in adults. Am J Clin Nutr 2003;77:1448-1452.
Buchowski MS et al. Dietary calcium intake in lactose maldigesting intolerant and tolerant African-American women. J Am Coll Nutr 2002;21:47-54.
Lovejoy JC et al. Ethnic differences in dietary intakes, physical activity, and energy expenditure in middle-aged, premenopausal women: the Healthy Transitions Study. Am J Clin Nutr 2001;74:90-95.
McCarron DA et al. Blood pressure and nutrient intake in the United States. Science 1984;224:1392-1398.
Pereira MA et al. Dairy consumption, obesity, and the insulin resistance syndrome in young adults: the CARDIA study. JAMA 2002;287:2081-2089.
Gillis LJ, Bar-Or O. Food away from home, sugar-sweetened drink consumption and juvenile obesity. J Am Coll Nutr 2003;22:539-545.
Summerbell CD et al. Randomised controlled trial of novel, simple, and well supervised weight reduction diets in outpatients. BMJ 1998;317:1487-1489.
Barba G et al. Inverse association between body mass index and frequency of milk consumption in children. Br J Nutr 2005;93:15-19.
Phillips SM et al. Dairy food consumption and body weight and fatness studied longitudinally over the adolescent period. Int J Obes 2003;27:1106-1113.
Zemel MB et al. Calcium and dairy acceleration of weight and fat loss during energy restriction in obese adults. Obes Res 2004;12:582-590.
Zemel MB et al. Effects of calcium and dairy on body composition and weight loss in African-American adults. Obes Res 2005;13:1218-1225.
Zemel MB et al. Dairy augmentation of total and central fat loss in obese subjects. Int J Obes 2005;29:391-397.
Caan B et al. Calcium plus vitamin D supplementation and the risk of postmenopausal weight gain. Ann Intern Med 2007;167:893–902.
Azadbakht L et al. Dairy consumption is inversely associated with the prevalence of the metabolic syndrome in Tehranian adults. Am J Clin Nutr2005;82:523–530.

Keywords: healthy weight, health studies

Spotlight on Nutrition

Weigh in on the evidence surrounding the role of calcium and milk products in weight management.

Download the PDF

Scientific Evidence Keywords

Lack of Physical Activity

It’s well known that the lack of physical activity, combined with too many calories represent risk factors of obesity.
Continue reading
Obesity: An Overview

Over the last twenty years or so, the increased prevalence of obesity here in Canada as well as in other developed countries around the world has been unprecedented.
Continue reading