Calcium Intake In Postmenopausal Women and Body Composition
One change many women make in their diet when their weight starts to become an issue is removing dairy products from the menu. Often thought to be high in fat and calories, many women feel that they will have an easier time maintaining their weight if they forgo this food group.
Contrary to this belief however, the consumption of dairy has actually been associated with decreased body fat levels, therefore this is a big mistake.
Recently, researchers out of the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences in California set out to look at how diary intake varied in postmenopausal women and what the direct result was on their body composition.
The study was designed so that forty-nine Caucasian women between the ages of 51-73 participated in taking a medical and diet history questionnaire, and then proceeded to perform a 3-day diet analysis, anthropometric measures including height, weight, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, and waist-to-hip ratios.
Their calcium intake was then reported both from food and supplement sources and lean and fat mass components were determined from a dual energy x-ray procedure.
After the study was completed, the results showed that there was an inverse relationship between the calcium intake, total percentage of body fat, and abdominal fat mass.
So, the take home message from this study is that women who are in their postmenopausal years would be of great benefit to regularly include dairy products in their diet as not only does this help with the maintenance of lean body mass as well as keeping body fat levels lower, but will also promote strong bones as well.
Reference:
Carothers, L. et al. (2008) Association of calcium intake and adiposity in postmenopausal women. J. Am Coll Nutr. April 27 (2):260-2.
