Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #112144

Amy Joy Lanou, PhD, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, 5100 Wisconsin Avenue, NW, Suite 400, Washington, DC 20016, 202-686-2210 ext. 354, alanou@pcrm.org

Some researchers have hypothesized that dairy products and calcium may aid in weight and body fat loss and the dairy product industry has widely publicized this potential relationship. This presentation will evaluate evidence from 15 observational studies and 35 clinical trials that assessed the effect of dairy product intake on body weight and body fatness. In summary, dairy products and calcium are inconsistently inversely associated with body weight or fatness in observational trials, but in clinical trials neither dairy products nor calcium supplements reliably lowered body weight (2 out of 35 trials) or adiposity (3 out of 17 trials). In observational trials, higher dairy intakes were associated with other lifestyle factors known to be related to weight or fat loss. Further, none of the longitudinal studies reported weight or fat loss over time; rather, positive studies showed smaller weight or fat gains. Taken together, current evidence does not support the hypothesis that dairy consumption alone, or in conjunction with caloric restriction, will result in weight or fat loss in the short or long term. The public health impact of basing health-related advertising campaigns on preliminary data and the intersections between research findings, health messages, and advertising efforts will be discussed.

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