Calcium - Scientists Uncover Diet Secret

by Liz Neporent (Subscribe to Liz Neporent's posts)
Mar 27th 2009 1:00PM

Liz Neporent is a diet and fitness expert and author of 12 fitness bestsellers. She regularly appears on national TV programs and is the president of Wellness 360, a New-York based wellness provider.

Another piece to the obesity puzzle: Boosting calcium consumption spurs weight loss -- but only in people whose diets are calcium deficient.

Angelo Tremblay and his team at Université Laval's Faculty of Medicine made the discovery in a 15-week weight loss program they conducted on obese women. The participants consumed on average less than 600 mg of calcium per day, whereas recommended daily intake is 1000 mg. In addition to following a low-calorie diet, the women were instructed to take two tablets a day containing either a total of 1200 mg of calcium or a placebo (sugar pill). Those who took the calcium tablets lost nearly 13 pounds over the course of the program compared to only about two pounds for women in the control group.

One hypothesis for the calcium-weight loss connection is that the brain can detect the lack of calcium and seeks to compensate by spurring food intake, which obviously works against the goals of any weight loss program. Sufficient calcium intake seems to stifle the desire to eat more and is therefore important to ensuring the success of any diet. According to the investigators in the study, which is published in the most recent issue of the "British Journal of Nutrition," more than 50 percent of obese women who come to their clinic don't eat enough calcium to meet the recommended daily requirements.

The French team has studied the link between calcium and obesity for several years. Their first findings, published in 2003, revealed that women who ate calcium-poor diets had more body fat, bigger waistlines and higher bad cholesterol levels than those who consumed moderate or large amounts of calcium. A second study showed that the more people avoided eating dairy products over the six-year period examined, the more weight and body fat they gained, and the bigger their waistlines grew. In 2007, they established a direct link between calcium and a lower cardiovascular risk profile among dieters.

I know there is a diet faction out there that says dairy is bad for your health and you should avoid it. But the evidence doesn't seem to be leaning that way. Interestingly, there was a study last year that found full-fat dairy products were a better aid for weight loss than the low-fat versions. This idea definitely deserves further exploration.

If you are adamant about limiting diary, you can still get your calcium in other ways, and it appears that the body doesn't care where it comes from. The RDA for calcium for women is 1200-1500 mg daily. You can take a supplement or go to alternate sources like Chinese cabbage, kale and broccoli. Although most grains are not high in calcium (unless fortified), they do contribute calcium to the diet if they are consumed frequently. Additionally, you can buy many calcium-fortified foods including fruit juices, fruit drinks, tofu and cereals. The bonus, of course, is that an increase in calcium is also good for your bones and heart.

I'd be interested to hear from anyone who ups their calcium intake and sees a difference on the scale. Or vice versa. I'd also like to know if there are anti-dairy people out there and what their reasons are for banning all moo juice-containing foods from their diets.

Comments (6)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

DR 3-27-2009 @ 1:59PM

Whether its calcium or vitamin d or omega 3 fatty acids, we are seeing a lot more research lately showing that nutritional deficiencies on the cellular level are driving our tendency to overeat.

Sure, we're ingesting a ton of calories, but we are not giving our cells the "nutrition" that they need.

No surprise that a diet based on bread, sugar, processed meat and modified fats isn't providing our bodies with the nutrition they need

DR 3-27-2009 @ 2:03PM

More info on the link between cellular nutrition & obesity - http://healthhabits.wordpress.com/2009/03/21/stop-counting-calories/

u262f 3-27-2009 @ 3:00PM

Yes! Completely agreed! I like the link. It gets across what I've been trying to express too (although I haven't done it nearly as well: http://u262f.livejournal.com/7462.html ).

Deadharbor 3-27-2009 @ 2:47PM

I drink about 400 calories of dairy daily in addition to a normal diet and it doesn't seem to affect my weight much. So people shouldn't be afraid of milk. If you're counting calories, allow yourself a glass a day without it adding to your daily "calorie quota". I doubt 100-120 calories from milk with make a huge difference at all. I think sometimes a little good calories doesn't add to your weight at all. That's just my personal favorite theory though. Who knows, that glass might even make you feel satisfied and result in less snacks.

u262f 3-27-2009 @ 2:49PM

It's a funny coincidence that you're posting this now. I just got a tub of cottage cheese on my most recent grocery trip because I worked out that my calcium intake has been lacking the last few months. (I can't remember the last time I had cottage cheese. Probably a decade ago. Maybe two.) I used to have a lot of broccoli and yogurt before winter, but I stopped because I got tired of yogurt (besides, it's been too cold for yogurt) and the broccoli has not been looking terribly good in the store. I just looked it up online, and broccoli season is apparently March to November (although, is the season starting late this year?), so that would explain why the broccoli hadn't looked good all winter.

So, definitely, calcium is good. However, the same applies to all other nutrients too: if the body is low on ANY nutrient, it would have problems and not be healthy. That's why they went to the effort of putting so many items on the RDA. People require an adequate amount of ALL nutrients, not just calcium. Furthermore, some nutrients work in balance, so skyrocketing intake of one nutrient without keeping the complementary nutrients in balance would probably not be very effective. Still, it's great that studies continue to reconfirm what the RDA said: bad things happen if people don't get the recommended amounts. With all the misinformation out there, it's hard to tell what to believe.

Besides, it's just cool that studies are confirming the apparently counter-intuitive fact that people might be obese partly because of lack of nutrition. This is what the low-cal, low-fat, low-carb, calories-in-vs-calories-out schools of thought forgot, and forgetting to get sufficient nutrition makes us fat. Yet again, science is finding that it's NOT about just calories in vs. calories out. Humans are far more complicated than that.

veggiegirl 3-29-2009 @ 4:46PM

I'm vegan, so I cut dairy out of my diet for a few various reasons.

1) I don't like the taste of milk. Plain and simple. Giving up yogurt was harder, but when I realized the taste in yogurt was largely sugar and that plain yogurt was actually pretty nasty, that became easy too. Cheese gets the better of me, but I've found cheese substitutes that do the trick.

2) I don't consume dairy because I think it's unnatural. Mammals produce milk for their young- humans included. The milk is super-rich in nutrients and fat to help the newborns grow in that crucial stage. When the mother's milk dries up, the offspring can fully survive on other foods, and hence stops drinking milk, in every species but ours. Humans are the only species to drink the milk of another species and to drink milk into adulthood.

3) The side affects worry me. If I did drink milk, I would only drink the organic stuff, and even that is problematic. I'd rather not have milk from a cow that's been injected with growth horomones to produce beyond it's natural capacity. I'd rather not have milk from cows that have been milked by machines that cause infestation and sores on the cows udders. (Surprise, not much milking is done by hand.) Oh, not to mention that in the countries with the most milk drinkers, we have the most cases of osteoperosis (Don't butcher me for my spelling, if it's off). Strange.

I'm not a crazy animal loving hippie, but I do think that the meat and dairy businesses go way out of line all in the name of profit. Besides, since giving up dairy and animal product, I've felt happier and lighter, literally and emotionally. I'm very careful to get all the nutrients that my body needs, and yes, sometimes that means I have to eat 'weird' foods that my family and friends would never touch. But the thing is, it's yummy, healthy, and compassionate. I don't starve, I don't subsist on tofu. If anything, being vegan has increased my culinary range.

Long answer to a short question.