A new study finds that calcium may do double duty
in middle age, building bone strength while helping
prevent weight gain.
Calcium supplements seem to have the greatest impact
on maintaining weight, and may even aid weight loss.
Supplementation seemed to benefit women even more
than men, noted researchers at the Fred Hutchinson
Cancer Research Center in Seattle.
The study was funded by grants from the U.S.
National Cancer Institute.
Reporting in the July issue of the Journal of
the American Dietetic Association, the researchers
followed 10,000 men and women in their mid-50s for
between eight and 10 years. Dietary calcium and supplemental
calcium intakes, as well as total calcium consumption,
were studied and analyzed and compared to weight loss
or gain throughout the study period.
Although previous research had examined a similar
link, those studied the relationships between dietary
calcium and weight rather than supplements.
The Seattle team noted that while "dietary calcium
alone had no significant effect on 10-year weight
change," women who received calcium supplementation
did tend to experience some weight loss.
"Although more evidence from randomized clinical
trials is needed before calcium supplements can be
recommended specifically for weight loss, this study
suggests that calcium supplements taken for other
reasons (e.g., prevention of osteoporosis) may have
a small beneficial influence on reducing weight gain,
particularly among women approaching midlife,"
the study authors wrote in a prepared statement.
Another study, published in the same journal, examined
the relationship between education and nutritional
advice.
The study found that adults over age 50 with less
than four years of college education turn to their
doctors, neighbors and their television for nutritional
advice and information more often than their better-educated
peers do.
"Education level, more than any other socioeconomic
factor, can predict disease risk, health behavior
patterns and diet quality," researchers at the
USDA Human Research Center on Aging, Tufts University,
Boston, said in a prepared statement. "It has
been suggested that one reason higher education promotes
more healthful diets is that better-educated people
may get better nutrition information," they said.
