Increasing intakes of calcium and higher blood levels of vitamin D

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Increasing intakes of calcium and higher blood levels of vitamin D may boost weight loss, suggest findings from a two-year clinical trial.

Average calcium intakes of 580 milligrams per day and blood levels of vitamin D of 30.2 nanograms per milliliter were associated with 5.3 kg weight loss over the two years of intervention, according to findings published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Lower calcium intakes of just 156 milligrams and blood levels of vitamin D of 14.5 nanograms per milliliter were also associated with improvements in body weight (loss of 3.3 kilograms over two years).

 
Controversy and debate

An ongoing area of debate is the role of dairy in weight management. A relationship between dairy intake and weight reduction has been recorded in numerous studies, and dairy industries in Europe and the US have been promoting milk-based products for consumers who want to slim for some time. The subject, however, remains controversial.

There are even splits within the dairy camp, with some arguing that calcium and vitamin D are the active nutrients behind the effects. One of the lead researchers in this are, Dr Michael Zemel from the University of Tennessee, has previously said that dairy can help reduce body fat and that calcium only accounts for about 40 per cent of the effect.

Data from the two-year Dietary Intervention Randomized Controlled Trial (DIRECT) now indicates that for every incremental increase in calcium from dairy sources was associated with an increase in “the likelihood of weight loss of greater than 4.5 kg, while similar associations were observed for increasing vitamin D blood levels.

Shahar and her co-workers analyzed data from 322 people with an average age of 52 and an average BMI of 31 kg/m2. One hundred and twenty-six of these people were followed to a further six months to track vitamin D levels.

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