Dairy Products Cause Weight Loss

The US Department of Agriculture and dairy industry advertising campaigns will stop claiming that dairy products cause weight loss because such claims are not supported by existing scientific research. The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) filed a charge with the Federal Trade Commission that the dairy industry has used false and misleading advertising in its multimillion-dollar, celebrity-filled marketing campaign suggesting that consuming milk, cheese and other dairy products causes weight loss. The milk industry’s campaign was based on small studies conducted by a professor of nutrition whose funding came from dairy industry sources.

Independent research, including a recent study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, has found that dairy product consumption either has little or no effect on weight loss or actually increases body weight. A recent study described in the International Journal of Cancer found a disturbing link between dairy product consumption and increased prostate cancer risk, something previously identified in two Harvard studies.

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine’s general counsel said “This case calls into question other advertising claims made by the industry, especially the notion that milk builds strong bones. Evidence shows it does nothing of the kind.”