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Title ----- Weight-Loss Tip: Add Extra Calcium to a Low-Fat Diet ------------------------------- Got milk? New research suggests you should if you want to lose weight. The weight loss study shows that calcium, three or four daily servings of low-fat dairy products, can help adjust your body's fat-burning machinery.
Low-fat dairy may help reduce body fat -------------------------- The key is low-fat dairy sources, says lead author Hang Shi, a postdoctoral student in Nutrition Institute at University of Tennessee at Knoxville. "High-fat dietary calcium can establish obesity, but it's surprising that low-fat calcium may help reduce body fat," said Shi. "The effect is very significant, much more than we imagined it would be."
His paper on effects of a high-calcium diet in increasing body fat loss was presented at Experimental Biology 2000 meeting in San Diego.
"The magnitude of findings was shocking," says Michael Zemel, PhD, director of Nutrition Institute, who is Shi's co-author and doctoral supervisor.
The more calcium there is in a fat cell, more fat it will burn ------------------------------ In their past studies, Zemel and colleagues have shown that calcium stored in fat cells plays a crucial role in regulating how fat is stored and broken down by body. It is thought that more calcium there is in a fat cell, more fat it will burn.
The researchers used mice bred to be obese in their current study. The mice were fed a special high-fat, high-sugar diet for six weeks. All had a 27% increase in body fat.
Some were then switched to a calorie-restricted diet. Of those, one group was given calcium supplements (calcium carbonate similar to Tums) and others were fed "medium" and "high" amounts of low-fat dry milk.
Body fat storage was markedly reduced by all three high-calcium diets, say authors.
Mice getting their calcium via supplements had a 42% decrease in body fat ---------------------- However, calcium from dairy products produced best results. Mice on "medium-dairy" diet had a 60% decrease in body fat, while those on "high-dairy" diet lost 69% body fat. Researchers also found very small increases in thermogenesis, body's core temperature, which then enhances effects of calcium gained through diet rather than calcium in supplement form, says Zemel.
"Calcium is no magic bullet. What study says is that ... higher-calcium diets favor burning rather than storing fat. Calcium changes efficiency of weight loss," Zemel tells WebMD.
