Dairy weight-loss claim viewed with skepticism

Got milk? And high hopes it will help you shed a few pounds? The dairy industry is counting on it, thanks in part to a $200 million ad campaign that confidently touts studies suggesting a connection between consuming dairy products and losing weight. But dieters might want to delay sporting milk mustaches for now.

Though the National Dairy Council and the researchers it pays stand by their claims, few others have endorsed the dairy-diet link. Even some scientists whose research supports that idea say its conclusions are premature.

''The bulk of the studies suggest a possible role, but there are inconsistencies in the data," said Dr. David Ludwig, an obesity expert at Children's Hospital Boston. In a 2002 study, he found that dairy aided weight loss. ''My concern is the advertising claims by the Dairy Council have well outstripped the available data."

Those claims have received wide attention since 2003, when a coalition of dairy groups launched what has become the ''3-A-Day" campaign, which advises that three servings a day of dairy supports weight loss.

The federal government also recommends three dairy servings a day, but doesn't support the weight-loss claim.

The dairy campaign is based on research by Michael Zemel, a nutrition professor at the University of Tennessee. Since 2000, he has published several studies that found people who eat a lower-calorie diet and consume three low- or nonfat dairy servings lose nearly twice the weight as those who only cut calories.

But his research often is misunderstood, Zemel says. It is not a case of drink milk, lose weight. It works only for people who eat a low-calorie diet and are not already consuming three servings of dairy.

That's a bit more nuanced than the ''Lose More Weight" and ''Burn More Fat" emblazoned across the packaging of many dairy products.

All the milk-weight loss studies were funded by the Dairy Council, and most involved Zemel, who has received nearly $2.1 million from the group since 1998.

But it's the dairy industry's conclusions, not Zemel's science that has been criticized.

Barry Popkin, an obesity expert at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said the dairy industry has overreached beyond Zemel's science. ''We have too many contradictions and nobody's decided what the truth is," he said.