The Diet Detective
Calcium could be key to weight loss, study says

By Charles Stuart Platkin
Syndicated columnist

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Is it me, or is the dairy industry getting a little too aggressive?

I was impressed with the "Got milk?" campaign. I started drinking more milk, and I even increased my ice cream consumption. But now they're touting milk to help you lose weight, and even using Dr. Phil McGraw in their ads.

Can dairy products really help you lose weight? Dr. Michael Zemel, the director of the Nutrition Institute at the University of Tennessee, has researched a possible link between weight control and calcium. He presented a dairy study — funded by the National Dairy Council — that found "there is a substantial body of evidence that has emerged in support of what would superficially seem to be an unlikely concept: that dietary calcium plays a significant role in the modulation of energy metabolism and, consequently, exerts an 'anti-obesity' effect."

Good sources of calcium Nonfat yogurt (1 cup): 488 mg Skim milk (1 cup): 301 mg Cheddar cheese (1 oz): 204 mg Low-fat American cheese (1 slice): 144 mg 1 percent cottage cheese (1 cup): 138 mg Kale, cooked (1 cup): 94 mg Vanilla ice cream (1/2 cup): 92 mg Kale, raw (1 cup): 90 mg Nonfat chocolate pudding (1 pudding cup): 89 mg Almonds (1 oz.): 70 mg Broccoli, cooked (1 cup): 62 mg Broccoli, raw (1 cup): 41 mg

But Zemel also notes that there is a "plateau effect with calcium and weight loss" — meaning you can't keep taking more and more calcium and expect to continue to lose more and more weight. He recommends about 1,000 mg per day. So, if you are not getting your "recommended" dose of dairy products, that could be one of several factors influencing your weight.

Not everyone agrees with Zemel or the National Dairy Council.

"I'm skeptical at best," says Dr. Steven Heymsfield, a professor of medicine at Columbia University and director of the Obesity Research Center at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center in New York. "Until there is a larger portfolio of studies from independent sources (not funded by the National Dairy Council), and data collected with much larger sample sizes, this information has to be considered inconclusive."

Even if Zemel's findings are accurate, you couldn't simply add dairy products to your diet. If you did, you'd gain weight. You would need to replace "empty" calories with dairy products to get the weight-loss effect.

And it should also be noted that dairy products, including whole milk, ice cream, butter, and especially cheese, constitute the single biggest source of saturated fat in our diet.

Artery cloggers

"Most people think of dairy as healthful, but it's a dangerous trap," says Margo Wootan of the Center for Science in the Public Interest. According to CSPI, one cup of whole milk has five grams of saturated fat, the same amount found in one hot dog, five strips of bacon, a Snickers candy bar, or a fast-food hamburger, and as many calories as a 12-ounce can of soda.

"Yes, dairy is rich in calcium, but it has a high nutritional price tag," Wootan says. And since heart disease is the leading cause of death for American men and women, "anything Americans can do to reduce their intake of saturated fat and cholesterol, such as cutting back on cheese and even milk, would lessen the risk of heart disease."

Cheese, butter are culprits

Cheese gives us more saturated fat than any other food, including beef. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the average American now eats 30 pounds of cheese a year, compared with 11 pounds in 1970.

"Only one ounce of full-fat cheese can have as much as six grams of artery-clogging fat — about a third of a day's worth," said Wootan. "And an ounce isn't much — just one and a half slices of processed cheese, or a cube of cheddar, or the cheese on a slice of a large pizza." Not to mention that two slices of American cheese contain about 160 calories.

"Cheese, even low-fat cheese, should be considered a splurge food — like cookies," says Wootan. Some simple changes:

• At restaurants and at home, have sandwiches, burgers, salads, etc. without cheese.

• Switch to "lite" or reduced-fat cheese (e.g., Cracker Barrel 1/3 Less Fat, Jarlsberg Lite, Cabot Light, Kraft Fat-Free Singles, or Borden Low-Fat).

• Order your pizza without cheese or with half the cheese (and add veggies for more flavor).

• Don't be fooled by "part skim" mozzarella, which only saves you one gram of saturated fat per ounce. Instead, look for "reduced fat" or "light" mozzarella, which has half the fat of regular.

Butter is also full of saturated fat (roughly seven grams) and has 100 calories for only one tablespoon. And since most of us use about three tablespoons on our morning muffins, you're looking at another 300 calories — and about an entire day's worth of saturated fat. If you switch to a light margarine, you save about half the calories, and lose almost all of the saturated fat. The tricky part is making sure you're not trading for the equally unhealthy trans fat found in many margarines. So look for "trans fat free" on the package.

Other options

One of the better deals out there is nonfat yogurt. It has been touted as a "supernatural" food, containing protein and almost half your daily calcium needs at only 90 calories per six-ounce serving. But remember that it still has some calories, so don't overindulge. Use it to replace other empty calories in your current diet. For instance, if you normally eat a bag of chips as a midafternoon snack, yogurt would be a great replacement. However, if you decide to combine it with your chips, you'll gain weight.

Also, keep an eye on yogurt-covered snacks; some varieties are really candies in disguise. Consider:

• 1 cup yogurt peanuts: 921 calories, 63g fat, 72g carbs.

• 1 cup yogurt-covered raisins: 750 calories, 22g fat, 139g carbs.

• 1 cup yogurt-covered pretzels: 391 calories, 14g fat, 61g carbs.

In the United States, 9 in 10 women and 7 in 10 men don't meet their daily requirements for calcium. However, Wootan explains, "people would be better off getting their calcium from foods like fat-free (skim) or 1 percent milk, low-fat yogurt, low-fat cheese, or calcium-fortified orange juice. Plus, the recommendations for how much dairy we need are a bit overblown; most people only need about two servings per day."

Whole (3.3 percent fat) and reduced-fat (2 percent) make up 75 percent of the milk Americans consume. Each glass of skim milk you drink instead of whole milk saves five grams of saturated fat (a quarter of a day's worth) and about 30 calories (with comparable calcium).

Think you can't switch? In a blind taste conducted by CSPI, nine out of 10 said they liked the taste of either 1 percent or skim just as much as whole or 2 percent.

Additional calcium sources

There are estimates that more than 50 percent of the world's population is lactose-intolerant. As an alternative to cow's milk, try nonfat soymilk that's been fortified with calcium, such as WestSoy, which contains 20 percent of your daily calcium requirement and only 80 calories per cup.

There are other nondairy alternatives for getting your calcium. If you're already drinking orange juice every morning, switch to calcium-fortified. Add kale (90-100 mg per ½ cup cooked), broccoli (120 mg for 2 cups, cooked), or turnip greens (100-125 mg per ½ cup, cooked) to your salads and side dishes.

You can't simply add dairy or calcium to your diet and lose weight without cutting calories — there's still no magic bullet.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company