Child Nutrition

• Want a Great Smile? Brush, Floss…Eat Yogurt
• DASH to Dairy to Lower Blood Pressure
• New Online Menu Planner Helps Consumers Build Better Diets
• Calcium + Protein = Strong Bones
• Will Drinking Milk Help Girls Breathe Easier?
• Calcium and Beyond: Dairy Foods, Fruits and Vegetables May Help with Bone Fractures and Hypertension
• American Academy of Pediatrics Revised Statement on Pediatric Allergies is Good News for Moms Who Love Milk
• MyPyramid Plan for Pregnancy & Breastfeeding
• Calcium from Food May Benefit Bones More Than Supplements
• Adolescents with Dairy-Free Diets Fall Short On Calcium
• American Heart Association Calls for Women to Establish Healthy Lifestyle and Eating Habits
• American Academy of Pediatrics Recommends Dairy for Children with Lactose Intolerance
• School Meals and Nutrition
• Flavored Milk

Calcium and Bone Health

• Exercise and Good Diet Can Assist Bone Health
• African Americans Not Getting Enough Calcium
• First Ever Surgeon General's Report on Bone Health

Weight Management

• Dairy Helps Weight Loss
• Two New Studies Show the Positive Influence of 3 Servings of Dairy a Day

Hypertension

• Eating Dairy Lowers Systolic Blood Pressure
• National High Blood Pressure Education Program Updated Recommendations
• The DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) Diet

Nutrition Research

Dairy Helps Weight Loss

Objective: Increasing 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D in response to low-calcium diets stimulates adipocyte Ca2+ influx and, as a consequence, stimulates lipogenesis, suppresses lipolysis, and increases lipid accumulation, whereas increasing dietary calcium inhibits these effects and markedly accelerates fat loss in mice subjected to caloric restriction. Our objective was to determine the effects of increasing dietary calcium in the face of caloric restriction in humans.

Research Methods and Procedures: We performed a randomized, placebo-controlled trial in 32 obese adults. Patients were maintained for 24 weeks on balanced deficit diets (500 kcal/d deficit) and randomized to a standard diet (400 to 500 mg of dietary calcium/d supplemented with placebo), a high-calcium diet (standard diet supplemented with 800 mg of calcium/d), or high-dairy diet (1200 to 1300 mg of dietary calcium/d supplemented with placebo).

Results: Patients assigned to the standard diet lost 6.4 ± 2.5 percent of their body weight, which was increased by 26 percent (to 8.6 ± 1.1 percent) on the high-calcium diet and 70 percent (to 10.9 ± 1.6 percent of body weight) on the high-dairy diet (p < 0.01). Fat loss was similarly augmented by the high-calcium and high-dairy diets, by 38 percent and 64 percent, respectively (p < 0.01). Moreover, fat loss from the trunk region represented 19.0 ± 7.9 percent of total fat loss on the low-calcium diet, and this fraction was increased to 50.1 ± 6.4 percent and 66.2 ± 3.0 percent on the high-calcium and high-dairy diets, respectively (p < 0.001).

Discussion: Increasing dietary calcium significantly augmented weight and fat loss secondary to caloric restriction and increased the percentage of fat lost from the trunk region, whereas dairy products exerted a substantially greater effect.

Michael B. Zemel*, Warren Thompson†, Anita Milstead*, Kristin Morris* and Peter Campbell**University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee and †Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota.