Dairy Industry In Trouble Over Weight Loss Claims

In an article in the Washington Post, a woman, Catherine Holmes reported that she went on the dairy diet to lose a few pounds and ended up gaining weight, and is now suing the dairy industry to stop the dairy-weight-loss advertising campaign and to seek damages. They also accuse the dairy industry of basing their claims solely on the studies of Professor Zemel at the University of Tennessee who has reportedly received 1.7 million dollars in research grants since 1998 from the National Dairy Council and accuse Zemel's work of being "compromised".

See the full story here at the Washington Post

I found this to be very perplexing, but also a bit strange, that someone is seeking damages for $236 against an organization with much more muscle than an individual could muster by themselves. A Media Research Center Free Market Project has pointed out that Catherine Holmes is actually a member of PCRM or Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (a group with an anti-meat, anti-dairy agenda with close links to Animal Rights Groups).

The Free Market Project reports that the PCRM's membership is made up of only 5% of individuals who are actually doctors. The occupation status of the other 95% of the membership is not mentioned. Apparently, these lawsuits have come shortly after PCRM launched an ad campaign on the public transport system in Washington D.C. to find others interested in suing the Dairy industry in a class action suit, reported by Jim Lovel of Adweek on the 17th June 2005.

In a press release from the International Dairy Foods Association, in response to the claims made by PCRM wanted to point out that they have never advocated a dairy diet, but simply not to omit dairy products in weight loss diets.

"We've worked with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and leading nutrition experts to communicate to adults that eating three servings each day of milk, cheese or yogurt can help in their weight-loss efforts when coupled with calorie restriction. This is not a "dairy diet," it's a recommendation that people shouldn't cut out milk and dairy products when they're trying to lose weight."

They direct our attention to an interesting site called PhysicianScam which is a non profit coalition of restaurant and food industry companies.

Looking outside the politics of the matter, it is true it is still not proven beyond a doubt that calcium does play a role in weight loss, having said this, many nutritionist advise that keeping it in your diet is beneficial because it helps protect against osteoporosis and provides many other vitamins and minerals.

In fact some studies looking at the effect of dairy and weight loss find that the consumption of dairy has no significant effect on weight loss when compared to control groups.

It is true that the great majority of evidence supporting calcium as playing a role in weight loss has been done by Zemel who has a patent on the calcium-weight loss link and has licenced it to Yoplait.

I also find it interesting, given that it is still controversial that calcium can help in weight loss, that the American Dietetics Association recommends the 24/24 meal plan which was designed in partnership with milk processors and prescribes 50g of fat and 1000 mg of calcium along with proportionate amounts of food in each food group according to the food pyramid, now known as My Pyramid.

The twists and turns seem limitless.

However, there are studies, not conducted by Zemel which support the hypothesis that calcium plays a role in weight loss. Many researchers believe that because the mechanism by which calcium effects weight loss has not yet been fully understood, that this may be one reason for the differing research results.

While the big companies battle it out in court, the fact of the matter, is that calcium and weight loss is still an hypothesis that needs further investigation.

While we are still waiting for conclusive evidence that calcium can help in weight loss, diary products still need to be included in a weight loss diet for their health benefits aside from any weight loss effect that may or may not occur.