Effects of dairy products consumption on weight loss and blood chemistry in premenopausal obese women

Objectives: To determine the effects of dairy calcium on changes in body weight and body fat mass in obese women on a weight-loss diet. Methods: The non-randomised controlled study was conducted at Sivas Government Hospital, Turkey, between January and March 2010, and comprised obese women outpatients coming to the Nutrition and Diet Clinic. The participants were assigned to three groups according to their intake of dairy products as control, low dairy and high dairy groups. Measurements of anthropometry, blood pressure and analysis of blood chemistry were done before and after the intervention. Results: The mean age of the 65 women was 33.10 +/- 6.18 years. There were 20(30.7%) women in control group, 22(33.8%) in high dairy group and 23(35.3%) in low dairy group. At the end of the study, body weight, body mass index, waist and hip circumferences, waist/hip ratio, body fat percentage, and fat mass significantly decreased within the groups (p<0.001) whereas no difference was determined between the groups. Plasma total cholesterol levels decreased (p<0.05, p<0.001) and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels increased (p<0.05) in the two intervention groups. Systolic blood pressure was negatively correlated with dairy calcium (?=0.460, p<0.05). Conclusions: In women following a weight-loss programme, increasing the amount of dairy products was not effective in improving weight-loss compared to calorie restriction alone.