A lot media attention has focused recently on dairy food as a dieting aid, but a new study shows that high levels of calcium do not appear to boost weight loss beyond the effects of calorie restriction.

“More data is necessary before high-dairy, high-calcium diets can be relied on to cause weight loss,” said Dr. Warren G. Thompson of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, the study’s lead author. “It’s possible, but this study suggests that it might not be true and that further larger studies are indicated.”

Some research has suggested high calcium intake - especially in the form of dairy products - helps to burn fat and speed weight loss, Thompson and his team note in the journal Obesity Research.

To investigate whether a dairy-rich diet might help people drop pounds faster, they compared three different reduced-calorie diets in 72 obese adults.

One group followed a standard diet including two servings of dairy each day, the second ate a similar diet but included four servings of dairy daily, and the third group ate a high-fiber, low glycemic index diet that also included four daily helpings of dairy.

People who ate two servings of dairy each day took in about 800 mg of calcium, while those who ate twice as much dairy consumed about 1400 mg. The current US recommended daily allowance for calcium is 1000 mg for younger adults and 1200 mg for people 51 and older.

After 48 weeks on the diet, there was no significant difference in the amount of weight lost among the three diet groups. All study participants lost about 10 kilograms (22 pounds) of total body weight and about 8 kilograms (17.6 pounds) of fat. All also showed improvements in levels of blood fats and sugars, but again there were no differences seen among people on the different diets.

Based on the findings, people should stick to current recommendations on calcium intake when dieting, Thompson told. It is possible, he notes, that calcium intake lower than that investigated in the study could slow weight loss.

“We need larger trials in multiple centers to more accurately answer these questions,” he concluded.

The study was funded by the National Dairy Council. As the organization notes in a press statement, dieters can benefit from the nutritional value of dairy products and still lose weight.

SOURCE: Obesity Research, August 2005.