12/29/2005

Dairy Does NOT Aid Weight Loss

By Laura Moncur @ 5:00 am — Filed under:

For a couple hundred dollars, PR Newswire will print whatever you want them to. That explains this bit of propaganda from the National Dairy Council.

All this reporting would be great news, if it were true. However, the study that they were referring to is available for all of us to read. No matter how much they get it wrong, the findings of the scientists at Purdue University were the exact opposite of what was reported:

This study took 155 women and placed them on various diets for one year: low dairy, medium dairy and high dairy consumption. Despite the varying levels of dairy, there was no change in body weight or fat percentage.

No matter what the National Dairy Council tells you, milk doesn’t magically make you skinnier. No matter how many times they misquote the research, we finally have the ability to find out the truth about nutrition. Dairy may be an important part of a healthy diet, but it isn’t a magic diet drink any more than any other diet hype you might see.

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8 Responses to “Dairy Does NOT Aid Weight Loss”

  1. Denise Says:

    YES. I’m so tired of hearing about dairy being great for you, about it being an excellent part of your diet for weight-loss, etc etc. It’s the dairy companies that are telling people this to make money.

    Really, dairy isn’t even an important part of a healthy diet (you don’t need it), but that’s another issue. 🙂

  2. Anne Says:

    Although the study examined differing quantities of dairy in a woman’s diet, it did not distinguish between kinds of dairy. I.e. higher or lower fat. Dariy companys love to promote their product, just like everyone else. But I can’t imagine than even the dairy companies would endores a plan that suggested drinking eight glasses of whole milk a day is a good way to lose weight.

    Like with all of these studies, it is more important to read between the lines than what is actually suggested in the text. ESPECIALLY who is financing the studies. How many times has big tobacco financed research that shows no correlation between smoking and cancer?

    Just some food for thought.

  3. Brenna Says:

    Milk is specifically used to fatten calves up more than 20 pounds in a month. And even if you eat or drink low-fat or nonfat dairy items, there are harmones, lactose (a carb), and glycerides (an alcohol) still present, which all promote obesity.

    Plus, according to Peta, Harvard nutritionists, and Washington Post dairy products are not necessary in a diet and in fact are bad for a person’s health.

  4. Laura Moncur Says:

    I don’t believe all the anti-milk hype either. Man has been drinking milk from grazing animals for over nine thousand years.

    I don’t believe milk promotes obesity any more than I believe that it’s some miracle weight-loss drink.

  5. Denise Says:

    That’s true that humans have been drinking cow’s milk for centuries, but it’s not the same, these days. The cows are pumped up with hormones, it’s done in factory farms, other substances end up in the milk (preservatives, etc). There are small farms, but they’re rare, and aren’t what you buy at the grocery store.

  6. Laura Moncur Says:

    We’re lucky enough now that there are many organic alternatives. I drink Horizon Farms, which are available all over the western states. I’m sure there are other products available that are free from hormones and antibiotics in other parts of the United States.

    The fact of the matter is that I LIKE MILK. I don’t want to give it up. I don’t believe it’s a magic weight loss medicine, but I also don’t believe it’s evil. It’s all about taste.

  7. Kristi Says:

    I think I’ll believe the doctors and drink my milk and eat my dairy products. You can’t quote one study and expect everyone to drop their glasses of milk. When it comes to nutrition, people should listen to health and nutrition professionals, not an animal rights group.

    As a nurse, I can testify that dairy products are a good source of calcium and many other nutrients. People who do not consume them run some pretty serious health risks, from osteoporosis to cardiac dysrhythmias.

    There are many studies, completely independant of the Dairy Council, that have proven that low-fat dairy does indeed promote weight loss. Some examples: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Harvard University, University of Tennessee at Memphis, Purdue University, University of Colorado, American Academy of Pediatrics, etc., etc., etc.

    That’s my .02.

  8. Susan Says:

    I stopped eating all dairy products, except for butter, and lost 20 pounds in the first 2 months. I ate all I needed, generally 3 meals per day, and I didn’t try to lose weight, but I did.

    I’m not saying that will work for everyone, but it did for me. No matter what the “official” story is, I’ll stick with what I know works.

    9 thousand years, up against a million years of evolution, isn’t really that much.

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