NutritionDoc

"can you believe that drinking milk could help you lose weight? ask the milk-moustache ads. "Well, new studies suggest that getting calcium and protein from lowfat or fat free milk could help you lose more weight than by just reducing calories." In fact, only one of those studies has been fully published. (11 obese adults who included 3 servings a day of dairy foods in their low calorie diets for 6 months lost 9 more pounds than 10 others who did not include dairy.)  What is more, the studies mentioned in the ad were carried out by Michael Zemel of the University of Tennessee, who has a patent on preventing or treating obesity with a high calcium diet. How did one study by a scientist with a vested interest get so much publicity? With a little help from its friends.  In Oct 2003 the dairy industry launched its "Healthy Weight with Dairy" campaign. "America's Dairy Farmers & Processors" ran ads in more than 30 newspapers and magazines from Time to USA Today to TV Guide. They also helped promote Zemel's book (The Calcium Key: The Revelutionary Diet Discovery That Will Help You Lose Weight Faster). launched a Web site, ran a paid "advertorial" in professional journals, and held briefings for groups like the American Dietetics Association and the American Academy of Family Physicians. And the industry acquied from Zemel the rights to the dairy weight loss claim, which it licenses to food manufacturers.  That is why ads for Yoplait yogurt claim that "a clinical study shows it helps you burn more fat and lose more weight than just cutting calories alone." That is an awful lot of mileage to get out of one study in which researches did not even prepare the foods the dieters ate (they simply provided instructions on what to eat). In the world of patents and PR a little science can go a loooooooooooong way.  To refeence old posts or to check on new information, visit my blog at http://nutritiondoc.blogspot.com