Study Suggests Drinking More Milk Could Prevent Fat Gain

Obesity
(01/2007)

Making milk your beverage of choice and maintaining this habit for 18 months may help prevent fat gain, suggests a new study published in Obesity.

Researchers at Purdue University conducted a follow-up study of 51 normal weight college-aged women who had previously participated in a year-long intervention that examined the impact of increased dairy intake on fat mass. Six months after the initial study was completed, the women in the high-dairy group had maintained an elevated calcium intake; the researchers emphasized increasing consumption of lowfat and fat free milk to help boost calcium intakes.

The researchers found that the women who had maintained a high-dairy/high-calcium intake over the entire 18-month period had significantly lower fat mass compared to the women with lower calcium and dairy intakes (less than 800 mg of calcium per day).

At the start of the 12-month clinical study, women had low calcium intakes and were instructed to follow one of three diets - a low-dairy diet (less than 800 mg calcium per day), a medium-dairy diet (1,000 - 1,100 mg calcium per day) or a high-dairy diet (1,300 - 1,400 mg calcium per day). While no body fat or weight differences were found during the first year, the researchers detected a significant difference between the low-dairy diet and high-dairy diet when they revisited the women six months later.

The researchers concluded that the effect of dairy products such as milk or calcium on fat and weight may be small and difficult to detect in just one year among normal weight young women, but that habitual intake of dairy products rich in calcium like lowfat or fat free milk over a longer time period may be linked to healthy weight management benefits.

The authors conclude that "it is important to develop strategies to promote increased calcium intakes in the U.S. population because intakes are generally far below current recommendations."

Dietary guidelines recommend three servings (or 24 ounces) of lowfat or fat free milk each day for Americans over age 8, and two servings for children under age 8.

_{Eagan MS, Lyle RM, Gunther CW, Peacock M, Teegarden D. Effect of 1-year dairy product intervention on fat mass in young women: 6-month follow-up. Obesity. 2006;14:2242-2248.}