Originally published January 31 2006
Study claims calcium may contribute to lower body weight
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
A report from the Journal of Nutrition claims that dietary calcium is often associated with lower body weight and smaller waist circumference.
The recent rapid rise demonstrates that environmental factors play a substantial role, and thus it is not surprising that bioactive components of foods, such as the dairy product components calcium, protein, or vitamin D, may play a role in the regulation of energy balance.
McCarron et al. (2) reported an inverse association between calcium intake (of which dairy products are the predominant dietary source) and body weight based on data from the first National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey.
Subsequent to these publications, numerous investigators began exploring the topic, initially by employing existing data from clinical observational trials (8,9).
Many, but not all of these studies supported an association between higher calcium or dairy product intake and reduced fat mass.
In epidemiologic studies, dairy product intake is often used as a surrogate measure for calcium intake because dairy products comprise the primary source of dietary calcium in the U.S. diet.
Finally, like any nutrient, there may be a threshold effect such that a sufficient intake is necessary for change to be evident, and at the current low calcium intakes in the United States, these intakes may not be achieved; thus, an effect is not noted in epidemiologic studies.
Although the adipocyte is the primary storage tissue for fat, it is important to determine the effect of the dietary calcium-regulated hormones on energy metabolism in the appropriate tissues such as muscle.
This is particularly true in light of evidence demonstrating a role of calcium in regulating lipid oxidation because muscle is the most highly oxidative tissue.
Another component of dairy products, conjugated linoleic acid, may also affect body weight.
The results in humans suggest that vitamin D status may have effects that oppose those of PTH in regulating fat mass.
For example, both the biomarker of vitamin D status, 25OHD, and 1,25(OH)2D correlated negatively with BMI and body fat mass in the study by Parikh (25).
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