Dairy consumption and cardiometabolic health: outcomes of a 12-month crossover trial

An intervention trial was undertaken in 61 overweight or obese adults who were randomly assigned to a high dairy diet (HD, 4 serves of reduced fat dairy/day) or a low dairy control diet (LD, ≤1 serve/day) for 6 months then crossed over to the alternate diet for a further 6 months. A range of anthropometric and cardiometabolic parameters including body composition, metabolic rate, blood lipids, blood pressure and arterial compliance were assessed at the end of each diet phase.Total energy intake was 1120 kJ/day higher during the HD phase, resulting in slight weight gain during this period. However, there were no significant differences between HD and LD in absolute measures of waist circumference, body weight, fat mass or any other cardiometabolic parameter.Recommended intakes of reduced fat dairy products may be incorporated into the diet of overweight adults without adversely affecting markers of cardiometabolic health.The trial was registered with the Australia and New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ACTRN12608000538347) on 24th October, 2008.Obesity has become a worldwide health epidemic [1]. With obesity related health costs exceeding billions of dollars in both Australia [2] and the United States [3], easily implemented interventions to slow or prevent obesity via weight loss has become a health priority.Dairy products provide over half of the dietary intake of calcium in most parts of the Western world [4]. In addition to calcium, dairy is an important dietary source of protein, vitamin D, potassium, phosphorus and magnesium. Clinical trials show that increasing dietary calcium and dairy intake can enhance weight and fat loss and preserve lean muscle mass during energy restriction, with dairy products exerting greater effects on attenuating adiposity than calcium supplementation alone [5-7]. However, other studies have failed to find any effect of a high intake of dairy food on body weight in an energy-restricted diet [8-10]. Without energy restriction, ther