The health problems of obesity are due to the presence of lots of very unhappy fat cells. The snotting and sniffing of these fat cells, generates inflammatory mediators, which sets the body “ON FIRE”.
Human mothers know the best way to pacify a snotting sniffing baby is to give it milk.
Could crying baby fat cells be pacified by a bottle or two of milk, too ?
Putting the fat cells on a dairy diet
Researchers from the University of Tennessee investigated how dairy intake impacted the level of inflammation in people suffering from metabolic syndrome.
The study enrolled 48 podgy people and put them on “diet” – the amount of calories consumed was adjusted for each person to ensure that calories in equalled calories out. All the participants were not big dairy people i.e. they typically followed a low dairy diet. The participants were randomly assigned to follow their normal low dairy diet (< 0.5 dairy servings a day) or to switch to an adequate dairy diet (>3.5 dairy servings a day). The team designed the diets in such away as to ensure that the macronutrient composition was the same in both groups.
Everyone was getting
- 35 % of their calories from fat
- 49 % of their calories from carbohydrate
- 16 % of their calories from protein
- They ate 8-12 g of fibre every day
NOTE : This macronutrient composition is pro-inflammatory – obey the rule of thirds for optimum health
A bottles of milk calms
It took just 7 days to see the calming effect of the dairy.
When the team measured the levels of inflammation inside participants, the dairy drinkers were a lot calmer. The level of oxidative stress had been dialled down and the inflammatory chemicals, typically produced by unhappy fat cells, had also dropped.
Fat loss on the dairy diet
The participants continued with the programme for 12 weeks (84 days), over this time, the level of inflammation in the dairy dieters decreased further. There was no change in the level of inflammation in those following the low dairy diet.
Participants did not lose weight or put on weight, because their diet had been designed so that calories in would equal calories out. You only lose weight, if you the equation is shifted so calories in are less than calories out.
But now for the big surprise ………………. the dairy drinkers did manage to lose a little fat, their podgy bellies shrank in size and the percentage fat decreased a tiny bit,as well.
The dairy effect
A whimpering baby is silenced immediately when it is hooked up with some milk. Whimpering fat cells, appear to also calm down quickly, when pacified with a bottle of “milk”.
A little bit of calcium plus “something”
The research team speculate it is the calcium in the milk, that is appeasing the fat cells.
The low fat dairy dieters were consuming less than 600 mg calcium a day, whereas, the adequate dairy dieters were packing in more than 1200 mg calcium a day.
But it isn’t just calcium, because calcium supplements don’t quite match the power of dairy and have been implicated in heart disease. There are lots of other things in dairy – both micronutrients as well as other bioactive compounds.
Pour yourself a cup of milk
Don’t be afraid of a little dairy – strive to include at least 3 portions of dairy every day.
PS. If you are already consuming adequate dairy DON’T TAKE A CALCIUM SUPPLEMENT. Too much calcium can poison your heart !
Dairy attenuates oxidative and inflammatory stress in metabolic syndrome. Am J Clin Nutri (2011) 94:422-30. R A Stancliffe, T Thorpe, M.B. Zemel.Interested in learning more about the chemistry behind the foods you’re eating ?
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Further reading
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My name is Dr Sandy Evans, I am a modern day alchemist, trained as a pharmacologist, I love to help people use chemicals to produce gold performances.