Scientists have identified a protein in milk that increases the metabolic rate by improving and speeding up the function of mitochondria in cells. It should help to prevent obesity and diabetes too. It's also been found in bread and beer. They hope that they can add this specific protein as a supplement in the future.

In the meantime it explains why people who eat more dairy lose more weight than those who don't. This is something that I came across before in a general diet study.

Here is the link to the science podcast with the details. The news on this is about three quarters of the way through.

http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/...0611-0404a.mp3

The podcast is from the BBC, the naked scientist.

Interesting! I recently found I like drinking skim milk with a sugar free chocolate mix, now I think I will make this a daily snack!

i am skeptical, as there are alternate studies on hormones in milk that contribute to obesity.

i mean, i would LIKE TO believe your stated information- simply because i do enjoy me some greek yogurt, and have been trying to stay off the milk... have you seen further studies on the subject?

I read somewhere that diary only helps with weight loss in calcium deficient people. I don't know, but for whatever reason I seem do to better when i add skim milk to my diet.

http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/ne...se-more-weight

I believe the studies have also found that dairy is associated with better weight loss only at the 2 to 3 serving mark. Less than this and there was no difference, and much more than this and dairy is associated with weight gain.

This may mean that the positive effects of dairy are limited (or perhaps that somewhere around the 3 serving mark is a tipping point at which time the negative effects of the calorie or hormone content, counteracts the positive effects of the milk protein).

I try to follow a mostly paleo diet, but I do consume some non-paleo foods, including dairy (mostly fermented dairy such as yogurt and sour cream).

The studies are all interesting, and some of them have helped me in my own journey, but the studies don't replace trial and error. I've found that my body doesn't always behave the way the "science" suggests it should. And while I know that I'm as susceptible to suggestion and placebo effect as the next person, I also know that the state of the weight loss science is pretty poor. It's a science that is still in it's infancy, so I'm left trying to be scientist and lab rat (unfortunately more lab rat than scientist) as I learn through trial and error.

Self experimentation is horrible science, but's it's the only option for weight loss. As they say, "everyone is different," but that's not really true. Everyone is not different, however everyone is not the same. Many people will have extremely similar situations - and eventually we may even understand why some people fall into one subset of weight loss attempters, and why others fall into another.

Until we understand all of the variables though, it means that we're left experimenting on ourselves to find what may work - and when we do find something that works for some of us, you can almost guarantee that it won't work for everyone.

I read in an old paleo-diet book (it may have been Neanderthin, or prehaps The Paleolithic Prescription, or the Paleo diet) that dairy wasn't a natural food for adults, but might be a preferable alternative for modern folk who didn't want to eat insects, skin, organ meats, bones, and other paleo sources of minerals (even dirt and clay - since it's believed that paleo humans would have consumed a decent amount of dirt along with their food and water, as they'd not always be able to wash food to the degree thant modern humans do).

Aside from mineral content, I also believe that the medium-chain fatty acids may have some health benefits (medium chain fatty acids being present in milk and coconut milk).

I have noticed with both milk and coconut milk seem to be more hunger-satiating (not only satisfying hunger sooner, but also keeping hunger at bay for a longer periiod of time) - and I mean more hunger-satiating per calorie, because otherwise it's an unfair comparison if 200 calories of coconut milk or dairy keeps me satisfied longer than 25 calories of something else.

200 calories of dairy or coconut milk, coconut butter, or food containing coconut oil, holds me longer than 200 calories of other foods.

That doesn't make dairy a health-food star, nor a health-food villain. There is no single food that is essential to the human diet. Every food contains nutrients that can be found in other foods. So any food that is touted as some kind of miracle food, should be immediately suspect.

Every food has advantages and disadvantages, which means that "healthy" when it comes to food always depends on the context of the individual's health issues and in the context of the rest of their diet.

Dairy can fill some gaps (especially perhaps those gaps created by the food groups we refuse to eat from, because they're culturally unappealing). Personally, I'd rather consume dairy than insects, bone meal, or calcium supplements, but hey that's just me.

This should be framed.

F.

Amen!

In support of the Naked Scientist studies there was also I program that i saw on the BBC that showed experiments on two groups eating the same calorie content but one had higher dairy and again the higher dairy ones lost more weight.

This study was less comprehensive than the Naked Scientist one.

Of course if someone sat down and ate 3000kcal worth of dairy in a day they would gain weight.

Love this quote kaplods, mind if I use it?

I would agree, but making and eating slow-cooked, homemade mineral broth is probably nearly as rare as (and perhaps even more rare) than insect-eating for most folks.

Personally, I do regularly make slow-simmered stocks with egg shells, shrimp chitin, chicken, beef, pork, and fish bones (and an acid such as vinegar or lemon juie to draw out more of the calcium - and break up the eggshells and chicken/fish carcasses a bit to increase the surface area so more calcium is leached intothe broth).

And I also eat more bone than most folk (soft fish bones in canned fish, for example).


Bone stocks are easy, but many people find them intimimidating or too time-consuming to make regularly. With practice it's not, but if a person isn't willing to take the time, then dairy (even processed dairy) is often is a better source than supplements (unless you find a really good supplement and take it with acidic food or beverage).

I usually get my calcium from canned fish bones, vegetables, bone-stocks, dairy, and occasionally a supplement (not so much with the supplement since learning to make yogurt).


Until I discovered greek yogurt (and then learned to make my own) I didn't eat a lot of dairy. I didn't "ban" dairy, but I did usually get my calcium in other ways.