Dairy products

I've never been a big fan of dairy products and for a while now I've been heard to say that I get my calcium intake from Häagen-Dazs but now comes a couple of studies showing that dairy products work in at least two or three ways to keep you trim.

One study found that actively dieting adults lost more weight if they consumed dairy products daily. Those on a reduced-calorie diet who ate three to four daily servings of dairy lost significantly more weight than those who cut calories but consumed few or no dairy foods. The researchers conclude that the mix of essential nutrients in dairy foods actually speeds up metabolism and improves the body’s ability to burn fat.

Michael Zemel, professor of nutrition and medicine at the University of Tennessee, says that milk acts on fat cells via a hormonal system designed to maintain a constant level of calcium in the blood. When calcium levels dip, this system unleashes a hormone called calcitirol, which orders the body to make more fat out of sugar. In a one-two punch, calcitrol also inhibits fat from breaking down and burning.

Taking the dairy out of your diet "leaves you with bigger, fatter fat cells," says Zemel. When your milk glass overflows, however, calcitirol production is suppressed; fat cells grow smaller and your weight drops.

But take the calcium out of milk -- say, in a calcium pill -- and you don’t get the effect. Calcium is not a solo operator here on milk’s slimming mission. "Milk is more than a calcium-delivery vehicle, it’s a rich source of bioactive compounds that work synergistically with calcium to achieve weight optimization," Zemel says.

Another recent study, this by a team of Australian researchers, showed that lauric acid, a fatty acid found in milk as well as in beef and butter, suppressed people’s appetite.
It inhibited the emptying of their stomachs, making them feel fuller longer.
Here’s the interesting part: the fatty acids in milk are of a very particular configuration. That construction is critical in allowing them to interact with hormones in the gut that send stop-eating messages to the brain No matter how milk works its magic, dieters need only understand how much dairy to include in their meal plans. "What our data shows is that you lose about twice as much weight and fat on a dairy-rich diet than on a dairy-poor diet," Zemel says.

Three servings a day should be sufficient. One serving equals an eight-ounce cup of milk, a cup of yogurt or one to two ounces of hard cheese. (Cream cheese and ice cream don’t count*.) And if you’re not overweight or don’t wish to cut calories, a dairy-full diet won’t likely change the number on your scale. But it will shift your body composition so that you’re retaining more muscle mass while you lose fat. "This prevents the typical one- to two-pound weight gain per year that most adults accumulate," adds Zemel.


So watch out Atkins, South Beach and The Zone, the next big thing could well be the Who ate all the cheese diet!

*Boooooo