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The BIG FAT CALCIUM Surprise
BY Colleen Pierre
New research shows that indulging in three servings of dairy foods per day will help you lose 10 extra pounds-and flatten your belly. A glass of milk, anyone?
When you're trying to lose weight, you probably cut back on dairy foods. Diet soda or water replaces milk, sandwiches and pasta go cheeseless, and frozen yogurt and ice cream don't even make the menu. What's left? Yogurt-and few people polish off more than one small container a day.
Eating this way isn't just bad for your bones, new research shows it's also terrible for your diet. "Not getting enough calcium in your meals slows your weight-loss efforts," says Michael Zemel, PhD, director of the Nutrition Institute at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. He recently put 32 overweight men and women on a diet for six months. All ate 500 fewer calories than they needed to maintain their weight, but the amount and source of the calcium varied among participants. Those consuming 1,200 to 1,300 milligrams (mg) of calcium daily from dairy foods lost nearly twice as much weight-an extra 10 pounds for an 180-pound person-as those on a diet that contained just 400 mg of the mineral. Plus, the dairy-lovers dropped 14% of their abdominal fat, nearly three times the amount of the low-dairy group.
Too good to be true? Sounds like it, but his study is actually the culmination of years of investigation. Here's how researchers stumbled upon this incredible diet secret. Read on to see how you can get the most calcium for the fewest calories. It'll be easier (and tastier) than you expect.
The Weight-Loss Mystery
More than 20 years ago, in 1984, David McCarron, MD, a researcher at Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland, was studying the connection between calcium and blood pressure when he uncovered something interesting. He found that the less calcium people consumed, the more likely they were to have high blood pressure. And calcium from food, he discovered, had twice the power to lower blood pressure as calcium from supplements. He also noticed a connection between calcium and weight, but didn't make much of it.
These findings caught Zemel's attention, and curious about calcium's ability to lower blood pressure, he put African-American men on highcalcium diets a few years later. The diets were designed to prevent weight loss because Zemel didn't want changes in body size to confound the study results. Nevertheless, the men lost 11 pounds. Better still, they lost fat and gained muscle without changing their exercise routines. Zemel was intrigued, but he didn't publish the finding because he couldn't explain it. "People have been tricked too many times," he says. "We needed to be sure there was valid, comprehensive science to back up what we found."
Instead, he went to his lab, conducting studies in test tubes, in petri dishes, and on animals. In the late '90s, he came up with an explanation: He found that when you eat too little calcium, your body starts making more calcitriol, a hormone that directs calcium to rush inside your fat cells and tell them to store more fat and burn less fat for energy. Happily the reverse is true: Eating more calcium tames calcitriol so your fat cells store less fat and burn more fat for energy. Controlling calcitriol with calcium also lowers your blood pressure.
Once Zemel made the calcitriol discovery, he started talking about it at scientific meetings. Some colleagues offered to reanalyze their data to see if they could come up with a connection between calcium and weight-even though that's not what their studies were designed to examine. One of those scientists who dusted off some data was Purdue University's Dorothy Teegarden, PhD. In the late '90s, she and her colleagues began a two-year study on exercise and bone density in women ages 18 to 30. Now knowing what to look for, she discovered that she could predict body fat changes just by noting the amount of calcium the women consumed. As long as calories stayed at or below 1,900 daily, eating 1,000 mg of calcium daily produced a weight loss of 6 pounds over two years, while eating less than 500 mg of calcium daily resulted in a 4-pound weight gain-a difference of 10 pounds on the same calories and exercise. "It was very surprising to me, especially the fact that the difference in weight was all body fat," says Teegarden.
Then Creighton University osteoporosis expert Robert Heaney, MD, got into the act. In 2002, he reanalyzed data from nine trials and calculated that every increase of 300 mg of calcium (about one dairy serving) was associated with 2.2 pounds less body weight in children and up to 7 pounds less in adults.
But the picture still isn't complete. In Zemel's study on the 32 overweight men and women, the group that consumed 1,200 to 1,300 mg of calcium from food lost 50% more weight and 26% more body fat than a group consuming 400 mg of calcium from food and taking an 800-mg supplement of the mineral. The suggestion: Calcium is just part of the story. Zemel notes that dairy contains other bioactive compounds like ACE inhibitors (yes, the high blood pressure Rx) and branched-chain amino acids that may help shift calorie usage away from fat and toward muscle.
When you're ready Become Lactose Tolerant
Many adults lose their ability to digest milk, but studies show that you can teach your body to handle lactose better. Start with hard cheeses, such as Cheddar and Swiss, which are virtually lactose-free. Also choose yogurt because its live and active cultures help digest the lactose for you. Even milk is manageable if you start with small servings at mealtimes and gradually build up your tolerance. Failing that, try Lactaid milk or chew a lactase dairy tablet just before you have milk.
The Multitasking Mineral
"Calcium is more important to your body than you realize," says Michael Zemel, PhD, author of The Calcium Key. Of course, when you think of calcium, you think of bones and teeth-that's where 99% of your calcium is stored. "But your blood is where the action is," he adds. "Some of these jobs are so critical that if you don't supply enough calcium through diet, your body will snatch it from your bones." Here's what the calcium in your blood does for you:
Controls heart beat, muscle contractions, and nerve transmission
Aids digestion and blood clotting
Lowers blood pressure
Controls body fat
Eases PMS symptoms
Reduces risk of kidney stones
Dairy Queen
Until researchers know more, getting three to four servings of low-cal dairy foods daily is the best advice-more isn't better. "Calcium isn't a giant calorie eraser," says Zemel. "You can't overeat and expect three dairy foods to help you lose weight." You'll get the most calcium per serving from lowfat or fat-free milk, low-fat or fat-free yogurt, and cheese. One cup of fat-free milk delivers 300 mg of calcium for about 90 calories, 1 cup plain fatfree yogurt doles out 250 to 400 mg of calcium for 120 calories, and 11/2 ounces of full-fat cheese provide about 300 mg of calcium for 165 calories. Here are six scrumptious ways to sneak this trio of waist-whittlers into your diet. (For milk-based recipes, and to learn more about calcium and weight loss, see www.2424milk.com. For meal plans, see "Dining High on Dairy," at right.)
Add flavor for free. Squeezing chocolate or strawberry syrup into milk usually tacks on another 50 to 100 calories per glass-something you may not have room for in your diet. The alternative: Stir in a few drops of calorie-free extract, such as vanilla, peppermint, maple, lemon, or strawberry. They're available in the spice section of your grocery store.
Get warm and cozy. Enjoy a mug of healthy hot chocolate (see page 12 for a delicious recipe) or if you don't need a chocolate fix, make a milk steamer. In a deep mug, heat plain or flavored fatfree milk in the microwave on high until hot. Use a whisk, battery-operated wand, or milk frother to put a foamy head on it.
Hide your milk. Not crazy about drinking plain milk? Make your oatmeal with milk instead of water. Or stir evaporated fat-free milk into soups or mashed potatoes to double your calcium quotient.
Be a plain Jane. Buy plain yogurt-it's packed with the most calcium-and sweeten it yourself. Great combos: Peaches and cinnamon, bananas and walnuts, or strawberries and mini chocolate chips.
Think Rome. Italian cheeses such as Parmesan, part-skim mozzarella, and part-skim ricotta serve up the most calcium per calorie. One 20-calorie tablespoon of Parmesan, for instance, forks over 60 mg of calcium. Sprinkle it on pasta, chicken, and vegetable soups.
Be a bargain hunter. Before you buy a frozen entrée, check out the calcium content. Some of the calorie-conscious ones from Healthy Choice and Lean Cuisine-especially lasagna, pizza, and mac and cheese-contain a hefty amount of calcium. The amount will be listed on the label as the percentage of the Daily Value (DV). Since the DV for calcium is 1,000 mg, you just have to add a zero to the percentage to get the amount of calcium per serving. For example, 30% is 300 mg of calcium.
BY Colleen Pierre
New research shows that indulging in three servings of dairy foods per day will help you lose 10 extra pounds-and flatten your belly. A glass of milk, anyone?
When you're trying to lose weight, you probably cut back on dairy foods. Diet soda or water replaces milk, sandwiches and pasta go cheeseless, and frozen yogurt and ice cream don't even make the menu. What's left? Yogurt-and few people polish off more than one small container a day.
Eating this way isn't just bad for your bones, new research shows it's also terrible for your diet. "Not getting enough calcium in your meals slows your weight-loss efforts," says Michael Zemel, PhD, director of the Nutrition Institute at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. He recently put 32 overweight men and women on a diet for six months. All ate 500 fewer calories than they needed to maintain their weight, but the amount and source of the calcium varied among participants. Those consuming 1,200 to 1,300 milligrams (mg) of calcium daily from dairy foods lost nearly twice as much weight-an extra 10 pounds for an 180-pound person-as those on a diet that contained just 400 mg of the mineral. Plus, the dairy-lovers dropped 14% of their abdominal fat, nearly three times the amount of the low-dairy group.
Too good to be true? Sounds like it, but his study is actually the culmination of years of investigation. Here's how researchers stumbled upon this incredible diet secret. Read on to see how you can get the most calcium for the fewest calories. It'll be easier (and tastier) than you expect.
The Weight-Loss Mystery
More than 20 years ago, in 1984, David McCarron, MD, a researcher at Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland, was studying the connection between calcium and blood pressure when he uncovered something interesting. He found that the less calcium people consumed, the more likely they were to have high blood pressure. And calcium from food, he discovered, had twice the power to lower blood pressure as calcium from supplements. He also noticed a connection between calcium and weight, but didn't make much of it.
These findings caught Zemel's attention, and curious about calcium's ability to lower blood pressure, he put African-American men on highcalcium diets a few years later. The diets were designed to prevent weight loss because Zemel didn't want changes in body size to confound the study results. Nevertheless, the men lost 11 pounds. Better still, they lost fat and gained muscle without changing their exercise routines. Zemel was intrigued, but he didn't publish the finding because he couldn't explain it. "People have been tricked too many times," he says. "We needed to be sure there was valid, comprehensive science to back up what we found."
Instead, he went to his lab, conducting studies in test tubes, in petri dishes, and on animals. In the late '90s, he came up with an explanation: He found that when you eat too little calcium, your body starts making more calcitriol, a hormone that directs calcium to rush inside your fat cells and tell them to store more fat and burn less fat for energy. Happily the reverse is true: Eating more calcium tames calcitriol so your fat cells store less fat and burn more fat for energy. Controlling calcitriol with calcium also lowers your blood pressure.
Once Zemel made the calcitriol discovery, he started talking about it at scientific meetings. Some colleagues offered to reanalyze their data to see if they could come up with a connection between calcium and weight-even though that's not what their studies were designed to examine. One of those scientists who dusted off some data was Purdue University's Dorothy Teegarden, PhD. In the late '90s, she and her colleagues began a two-year study on exercise and bone density in women ages 18 to 30. Now knowing what to look for, she discovered that she could predict body fat changes just by noting the amount of calcium the women consumed. As long as calories stayed at or below 1,900 daily, eating 1,000 mg of calcium daily produced a weight loss of 6 pounds over two years, while eating less than 500 mg of calcium daily resulted in a 4-pound weight gain-a difference of 10 pounds on the same calories and exercise. "It was very surprising to me, especially the fact that the difference in weight was all body fat," says Teegarden.
Then Creighton University osteoporosis expert Robert Heaney, MD, got into the act. In 2002, he reanalyzed data from nine trials and calculated that every increase of 300 mg of calcium (about one dairy serving) was associated with 2.2 pounds less body weight in children and up to 7 pounds less in adults.
But the picture still isn't complete. In Zemel's study on the 32 overweight men and women, the group that consumed 1,200 to 1,300 mg of calcium from food lost 50% more weight and 26% more body fat than a group consuming 400 mg of calcium from food and taking an 800-mg supplement of the mineral. The suggestion: Calcium is just part of the story. Zemel notes that dairy contains other bioactive compounds like ACE inhibitors (yes, the high blood pressure Rx) and branched-chain amino acids that may help shift calorie usage away from fat and toward muscle.
When you're ready Become Lactose Tolerant
Many adults lose their ability to digest milk, but studies show that you can teach your body to handle lactose better. Start with hard cheeses, such as Cheddar and Swiss, which are virtually lactose-free. Also choose yogurt because its live and active cultures help digest the lactose for you. Even milk is manageable if you start with small servings at mealtimes and gradually build up your tolerance. Failing that, try Lactaid milk or chew a lactase dairy tablet just before you have milk.
The Multitasking Mineral
"Calcium is more important to your body than you realize," says Michael Zemel, PhD, author of The Calcium Key. Of course, when you think of calcium, you think of bones and teeth-that's where 99% of your calcium is stored. "But your blood is where the action is," he adds. "Some of these jobs are so critical that if you don't supply enough calcium through diet, your body will snatch it from your bones." Here's what the calcium in your blood does for you:
Controls heart beat, muscle contractions, and nerve transmission
Aids digestion and blood clotting
Lowers blood pressure
Controls body fat
Eases PMS symptoms
Reduces risk of kidney stones
Dairy Queen
Until researchers know more, getting three to four servings of low-cal dairy foods daily is the best advice-more isn't better. "Calcium isn't a giant calorie eraser," says Zemel. "You can't overeat and expect three dairy foods to help you lose weight." You'll get the most calcium per serving from lowfat or fat-free milk, low-fat or fat-free yogurt, and cheese. One cup of fat-free milk delivers 300 mg of calcium for about 90 calories, 1 cup plain fatfree yogurt doles out 250 to 400 mg of calcium for 120 calories, and 11/2 ounces of full-fat cheese provide about 300 mg of calcium for 165 calories. Here are six scrumptious ways to sneak this trio of waist-whittlers into your diet. (For milk-based recipes, and to learn more about calcium and weight loss, see www.2424milk.com. For meal plans, see "Dining High on Dairy," at right.)
Add flavor for free. Squeezing chocolate or strawberry syrup into milk usually tacks on another 50 to 100 calories per glass-something you may not have room for in your diet. The alternative: Stir in a few drops of calorie-free extract, such as vanilla, peppermint, maple, lemon, or strawberry. They're available in the spice section of your grocery store.
Get warm and cozy. Enjoy a mug of healthy hot chocolate (see page 12 for a delicious recipe) or if you don't need a chocolate fix, make a milk steamer. In a deep mug, heat plain or flavored fatfree milk in the microwave on high until hot. Use a whisk, battery-operated wand, or milk frother to put a foamy head on it.
Hide your milk. Not crazy about drinking plain milk? Make your oatmeal with milk instead of water. Or stir evaporated fat-free milk into soups or mashed potatoes to double your calcium quotient.
Be a plain Jane. Buy plain yogurt-it's packed with the most calcium-and sweeten it yourself. Great combos: Peaches and cinnamon, bananas and walnuts, or strawberries and mini chocolate chips.
Think Rome. Italian cheeses such as Parmesan, part-skim mozzarella, and part-skim ricotta serve up the most calcium per calorie. One 20-calorie tablespoon of Parmesan, for instance, forks over 60 mg of calcium. Sprinkle it on pasta, chicken, and vegetable soups.
Be a bargain hunter. Before you buy a frozen entrée, check out the calcium content. Some of the calorie-conscious ones from Healthy Choice and Lean Cuisine-especially lasagna, pizza, and mac and cheese-contain a hefty amount of calcium. The amount will be listed on the label as the percentage of the Daily Value (DV). Since the DV for calcium is 1,000 mg, you just have to add a zero to the percentage to get the amount of calcium per serving. For example, 30% is 300 mg of calcium.
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