Dairy Products
The World's Best Fat Burning Foods?
Looking for fat burning foods?
Then look no further than the milk carton sitting in your fridge!
Research is showing that dairy products really do burn fat!
Dairy and Weight Loss
A number studies now show that diary products do more than just add calcium and protein to your diet: they also actively stimulate weight loss!
This effect was first noted in the 1980s in a study investigating the effect of dairy products on blood pressure in obese men.
Researchers found that adding 2 cups of yogurt a day to the mens’diet (for one year) not only decreased their blood pressure but also decreased their weight by an average of 11 pounds.
Studies On Dairy and Weight Loss
Since the 1980s several studies in both animals and people have shown that dairy products facilitate weight loss. These include both observational and clinical intervention studies.
Observations from several large population studies including the
NHANES I,
NHANES III,
The Quebec Family Study,
The Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by Individuals,
the CARDIA (Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults) Study
and the
Heritage Family Study
have all shown that those who ate the most dairy products were significantly leaner than those who ate less dairy.
Clinical studies have also provided evidence that adding dairy to your diet can result in weight loss - even without reducing your caloric intake.
In one study, for example, researchers showed that simply adding 300 mg of calcium in the form of dairy products to peoples' diets resulted in an approximate 6.5 pound decrease in body fat.
Such observations suggest that eating just two servings of dairy day could reduce the risk of becoming overweight by as much as 70%!
Is Calcium the Secret of These Fat Burning Foods?
Because calcium supplementation also helps with weight loss, the effect of dairy products was initially thought to be due to the calcium these products contain.
But studies have consistently shown that getting extra calcium by eating dairy products leads to greater weight loss than getting extra calcium from a supplement.
For example, when obese mice were placed on identical low calorie diets that differed only in the amount of calcium provided, those given the extra calcium experienced a significantly greater fat loss than mice fed the same number of calories but less calcium.
However, when the additional calcium was supplied in the form of diary products rather than supplements, that fat loss was increased by 50-70%!
In another study, when obese adults were placed on calorie restricted diets and then randomly assigned to either a low calcium diet, a high calcium diet in which the calcium was supplied by a supplement, or a high calcium diet in which the calcium was supplied by dairy, those in the dairy group lost 70% more weight than those on the low calcium diet and 40% more than those who took a supplement.
And that weight loss was mostly in the form of fat: members dairy group lost 64% more fat than those in the low calcium group.
Good-Bye Belly Fat...Hello Muscle !
Not only do dairy products help you only lose fat, they help you lose fat from the abdominal region.
Studies have shown that those who add dairy to their weight loss diet lose more abdominal fat than people who don’t eat dairy.
This is important because abdominal or “visceral” fat is a key component of the metabolic syndrome.
Metabolic syndrome is a condition that is associated with a reduced sensitivity to the hormone insulin. People with metabolic syndrome have a significantly increased risk of developing diabetes and of having a heart attack or stroke.
By reducing abdominal fat, dairy products improve sensitivity to insulin and lower the incidence of metabolic syndrome.
Dairy products have also been shown to help those following a reduced calorie diet retain muscle and bone.
An End to Yo-Yo Dieting?
In addition to increasing fat loss, dairy products appear to also decrease the weight regain that typically follows weight loss.
In one study for example, when obese animals were forced to lose weight and were then given unrestricted access to a low calcium diet, they quickly regained all the weight they had lost.
However,animals given unrestricted access to a high calcium diet following weight loss had a 50-85% reduction in weight regain.
And those given calcium in the form of dairy products regained even less fat than those given calcium in the form of a supplement.
How Do Thes Fat Burning Foods Work?
Although dairy products contain both calcium and high quality protein - both proven to facilitate weight loss - dairy products appear to be better fat burning foods than either calcium or protein alone.
This additional weight loss effect is thought to be due to the specific composition of dairy proteins.
Whey protein in particular appears to be an effective weight loss supplement.
Should YOU Eat Dairy Products?
While dairy products are,indeed, fat burning foods, many people cannot tolerate dairy products, either because they lack the enzyme needed to digest milk sugar (lactose) or because they are allergic to certain milk proteins.
Unfortunately, milk allergies are not always obvious and, like the allergies caused by grains, milk allergies can damage the lining of the intestinal tract lead to a variety of health problems.
If you like dairy and want to include it in your diet, I suggest being tested to make sure you are not allergic to it. This can be done with a simple salivary test.
Another Word of Caution
As with meat, it is best to eat dairy products that come from grass-fed cows rather than from grain-fed cows.
Milk from grass-fed cows has more omega-3 fatty acids than milk from grain-fed animals. Studies with fish oil are showing that the omega-3 fatty acids are also fat burning foods, so, by eating products from grass-fed animals, you get an even bigger weight loss bang for your buck!
And, since grass-fed animals are usually not given growth hormones or antibiotics, milk from grass-fed animals is also generally free of these substances.
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