Dairy and weight loss hypothesis

Abstract

In their recent assessment of clinical trials evaluating the hypothesis that dairy foods favorably impact weight management, Lanou and Barnard1 have overlooked several key facts. First, the dairy and weight management hypothesis does not predict an effect of dairy on body weight loss in the absence of energy restriction. Instead, it predicts an augmentation of weight and fat loss during well-controlled energy restriction and a redistribution of energy resulting in a loss of body fat with no change in body weight in the absence of energy restriction (see recent review2). Consequently, the hypothesis predicts little or no effect of either calcium or dairy on body weight in the reviewed studies that did not include an energy-restriction component. When viewed in that context, the results of the Women's Health Initiative demonstrating that calcium significantly attenuated the risk of moderate (>3 kg) postmenopausal weight gain in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of 36,282 subjects3 lend substantial support for the hypothesis and should not be dismissed as merely “showing a small reduction in the rate of weight gain”.1 Most of the remaining studies that failed to find an effect were designed to assess skeletal rather than energy metabolism or adiposity endpoints and, …