Re: More on dairy and weight loss including the theory behind it

[Guest guest]

Well, I don't understand it completely. Simple swapping some of my carbs for additional dairy is lowering my weight still keeping 1800 kcals. One said it was the additional protein - harder to digest. I noticed additional pantothenic acid (400%) ( a 1982 life extension thing). Where I once thought I could only eat 56gms of Protein without gaining weight, I now eat 98gms. And no side effects.

The whey I added, has more branch chained aminos than milk (which is just leucine, isoleucine and valine) and low carbs. Some wheys have more Ca than others - added CaCO3. The higher cost wheys have lactose removed, low fat, but either seems to work the same.

But for 3+ years, I've relied on dairy primarily, for protein. And I've always gotten >=1200 gms of CA, usually in food.

I'll keep doing it for another week.

Regards.

----- Original Message -----

From: Francesca Skelton

support group

Sent: Wednesday, June 30, 2004 11:45 AM

Subject: [ ] More on dairy and weight loss including the theory behind it

Weight loss was greatest in subjects that took their dairy in the form offood (not supplements).By Tallmadge Is it possible that one of my favorite food groups -- milk and milkproducts -- not only provides crucial nutrients but can also help peoplemaintain and lose weight? The answer, while not yet conclusive, looksencouraging. New studies are finding that calcium, particularly when in milkproducts, may help shed unwanted pounds and body fat.This is doubly important news because many people slash milk products fromtheir diets to lose weight. The research is showing that move is not only amistake for your bones, blood pressure and overall health (which nutritionexperts have been saying for years), it may also make weight loss moredifficult. Uncovering the calcium-weight loss connection was, like many scientificdiscoveries, a case of serendipity. In the 1980s, scientists researching thepositive effects of calcium on blood pressure found that people onhigher-calcium diets not only lowered their blood pressure but also lostweight. The connection wasn't taken seriously at the time. But when largegovernment- funded studies found links between calcium intake and bodyweight, researchers decided it was worth looking into. Since 2000, observational and clinical studies of men, women and childrenhave consistently shown that people eating diets containing calcium'srecommended dietary allowance of 1,000 to 1,300 milligrams per day havelower body weights and lower body fat. In fact, it's been calculated thatwith 300 more milligrams of calcium daily, adults will weigh about sevenpounds lighter than they would without the calcium.All of the biological mechanisms aren't completely understood. But, aftermany years of animal studies, the scientists, led by Zemel, directorof the Nutrition Institute at the University of Tennessee, have formulatedthe primary reason for this weight loss. When there isn't enough calcium inthe diet, the body responds by releasing hormones to help conserve as muchcalcium as possible for critical bodily functions (heartbeat, for one). Oneof these hormones, calcitriol, tells arterial muscle to contract, whichincreases blood pressure. But calcitriol also acts on fat cells."Calcitriol sends the fat cells a message to start making more fat andsends another message to slow down the process of fat breakdown andoxidation," says Zemel, co-author of "The Calcium Key" (Wiley, 2004). Sincehigh calcium levels have been the norm through evolution, the body assumesthat food is scarce and conserves when calcium is low in the diet.The result is that we become more efficient at storing calories as bodyfat, so when we cut calories to lose weight, a low-calcium diet makes itharder to break down body fat. Higher-calcium intakes (in which the bodysenses, rightly or wrongly, that there is plenty of food around) cause lowercalcitriol levels and increased fat breakdown. So weight loss is harder forpeople who don't consume enough calcium, which is the case for averageAmericans, most of whom consume only half the daily calcium requirement. In the first human clinical study of the calcium-weight loss connection,Zemel and his colleagues found that the amount of calcium and its foodsource made a huge difference in weight loss results.In the study published in Obesity Research in April, three groups of peopleate low-calorie diets containing 35 percent fat, 49 percent carbohydratesand 16 percent protein. The first group, which ate 400 to 500 milligrams aday of calcium (an amount of calcium typical for many Americans and lessthan the minimum requirement) lost an average of 15 pounds in six months.While eating the same diet with an additional 800 milligrams of calciumfrom a supplement, the second group lost 19 pounds. But while eating a diethigh in milk products containing about 1,200 milligrams of dietary calciumper day (not from a supplement), the third group lost 24 pounds. Fat lossfollowed a similar pattern. The people on the high-dairy diet lost a higherpercentage of body fat, maintained more lean muscle and (a finding thatsurprised the researchers) lost more belly fat, known as a risk factor fordiabetes and heart disease. In fact, the high-dairy group significantlyimproved its insulin sensitivity, but it isn't known whether that was adairy effect or the result of the weight loss, which alone improves insulinsensitivity.Why milk products produced more loss in weight and body fat than calciumsupplements isn't completely understood. But there are some theories. Forexample, milk products have many biologically active compounds, similar tothe phytochemicals in plants, which work synergistically to produce a morepowerful effect than a single compound, like calcium alone. And milkproducts also contain unusually high levels of an amino acid (the buildingblock of protein) called leucine.