World Dairy Diary

Because human bone mass peaks when a person is in their 30s, consuming sufficient amounts of calcium, protein and vitamin D — all found in dairy products — during the teen and young-adult years is considered key to lowering the risk of osteoporosis and some other health issues in later life. About 1,300 mg of calcium a day is recommended for high school-aged children and 1,000 mg a day for young adults, according to a news release from the journal.

Increased availability of milk at mealtime, a proper attitude and approach to weight, health and nutrition, and a taste for milk were linked to greater consumption of calcium during these critical years, the study authors noted. Excessive television watching and lactose intolerance were tied to lower calcium levels.

Weaver said the study, funded by the National Dairy Council, is the first direct comparison of bone properties between calcium from supplements and milk.

“A lot of companies say, ‘If you don’t drink milk, then take our calcium pills or calcium-fortified food,’” Weaver said. “There’s been no study designed properly to compare bone growth from supplements and milk or dairy to see if it has the same effect.”

Data from Purdue’s Camp Calcium, a research effort that studies how calcium and other nutrients affect bone growth, show that between the ages of 9 and 18 people require 1,300 milligrams of calcium a day for optimal bone growth. This is the equivalent of about 4 cups of milk or yogurt or the equivalent from cheese or other sources, Weaver said. After the age of 9, due mostly to peer pressure, the gap between the calcium youths need and actually get widens, she said.

The study involved 300 rats that were divided into two groups. For 10 weeks, the rats were given all the nutrients they require, but one group was given dairy and the other was given calcium carbonate as the source of calcium.

After 10 weeks, the bones of 50 rats from each group were measured for strength, density, length and weight.

“We found those measurements were up to 8 percent higher for those who had milk over calcium carbonate,” Weaver said.

The study also found a strong effect of having dairy as a calcium source followed by periods of inadequate calcium.

Over a second 10-week period, the remaining rats were fed as adults. Half of those were given adequate calcium as carbonate or milk. The other half were switched to half as much calcium as recommended, but were given calcium carbonate.

“This is comparable to humans who, during their early growth, drink a lot of milk to the age of 9 to 11, or maybe even adolescence, but then get only half as much milk calcium as they need after that,” Weaver said. “Some take calcium supplements, but few adults get adequate calcium.”

Weaver said the study showed the rats raised on dairy still had advantages over those who were given calcium carbonate even later when they were given half enough calcium as dairy or calcium carbonate.

“We found it was an advantage having milk or dairy while bones were growing over calcium carbonate, and it protects you later in life,” Weaver said.

She is not sure why dairy is better, but said further study is needed.

“I think this will spark some people to want to figure out what it is about milk that gives it an advantage,” she said.

This new generation vaccine has big benefits beyond eliminating the “Ouch!” factor. Delivering the vaccine to the gut — rather than injecting it into a muscle — harnesses the full power of the body’s primary immune force, which is located in the small intestine.

“This is potentially a great advance in the way we give vaccines to people,” said Mansour Mohamadzadeh, the lead author and an associate professor of medicine in gastroenterology at the Feinberg School.

“You swallow the vaccine, and the bacteria colonize your intestine and start to produce the vaccine in your gut,” Mohamadzadeh said. “Then it’s quickly dispatched throughout your body. If you can activate the immune system in your gut, you get a much more powerful immune response than by injecting it. The pathogenic bacteria will be eliminated faster.”

Most vaccines consist of protein and won’t maintain their effectiveness after being digested by the stomach. However, the lactobacillus protects the vac. The Northwestern study was reported in a recent issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

There are other advantages to the new oral vaccine. Probiotics, which are natural immune stimulators, eliminate the need for a chemical in traditional vaccines that inflames the immune system and triggers a local immune response. The chemical, called an adjuant, may cause side effects such as dizziness, arm swelling and vomiting. Probiotic vaccines also are inexpensive to produce.

Milk is one of the few food sources of vitamin D. In fact, it’s the leading source of vitamin D in the American diet. The recommended three 8-ounce glasses of lowfat or fat free milk provide 75 percent of the daily value for vitamin D. Milk also provides eight other essential nutrients, including calcium, potassium and vitamin A, which many Americans also lack.

But because of its huge size — 492,810 people and more than 50,000 cancers — the new study presents powerful evidence favoring the idea that calcium may somehow keep cells from becoming cancerous, said University of North Carolina nutrition expert John Anderson, who wasn’t involved in the study.

The new research involved food questionnaires from participants and a follow-up check of records for cancer cases during the subsequent seven years. This research method is less rigorous than some previous but smaller studies.

National Cancer Institute researcher Yikyung Park, the study’s lead author, called the results strong but said more studies are needed to confirm the findings.

Duke University nutrition researcher Denise Snyder said the results support the idea that food rather than supplements is the best source for nutrients.

Participants were AARP members aged 50 to 71 who began the study in the mid-1990s. A total of 36,965 men and 16,605 women were later diagnosed with cancer. There were more than 10 different kinds of cancer, the most common being prostate, breast, lung and colorectal.

Compared with people who got little calcium, those who consumed the most had the lowest chances of getting colon cancer.

Those in that highest category got on average 1,530 milligrams a day among men and 1,881 milligrams daily among women. The recommended amount for older people is 1,200 milligrams, and getting much more than that didn’t result in any greater protection. Adults can get that amount from four cups of milk or calcium-fortified orange juice.

Men who got the most calcium from food were about 30% less likely to get cancer of the esophagus, about 20% less likely to get head and neck cancer and 16% less likely to get colon cancer, when compared to men who got low amounts of calcium.

Among women, those who got the most food-based calcium were 28% less likely to get colon cancer than low-calcium women.

“Nobody can argue that plummeting milk prices mean that the farm- family owners of Cabot Creamery Cooperative are painfully aware of just how difficult it is to make ends meet these days,” says Roberta MacDonald, senior vice president of marketing for Cabot. “And they also know the value of a hard-earned dollar and how to put great food on the table for their families. That’s why we’re sharing some of our farmers’ favorite recipes – each one feeds a family of four for less than ten bucks. These recipes are healthy, tasty, and they’ll make you feel full and satisfied.”

Previously undisclosed tests, obtained by The Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Act, show that the FDA has detected melamine in a sample of one popular formula and the presence of cyanuric acid, a chemical relative of melamine, in the formula of a second manufacturer. Separately, a third major formula maker told AP that in-house tests had detected trace levels of melamine in its infant formula.

The three firms: Abbott Laboratories, Nestle and Mead Johnson, manufacture more than 90 percent of all infant formula produced in the United States. The FDA and other experts said the melamine contamination in U.S.-made formula had occurred during the manufacturing process, rather than intentionally.

The U.S. government quietly began testing domestically produced infant formula in September, soon after problems with melamine-spiked formula surfaced in China.

Sundlof said there have been no reports of human illness in the United States from melamine, which can bind with other chemicals in urine, potentially causing damaging stones in the kidney or bladder and, in extreme cases, kidney failure.

Melamine is used in some U.S. plastic food packaging and can rub off onto what we eat; it’s also contained in a cleaning solution used on some food processing equipment and can leach into the products being prepared.

The concentrations of melamine [found in China] were extraordinarily high, as much as 2,500 parts per million. The concentrations detected in the FDA samples were 10,000 times smaller _ the equivalent of a drop in a 64-gallon trash bin.

In this study men and women were given a high-calcium diet for seven days, followed by a one-week break, and then a low calcium diet for a further seven days. The fat levels excreted by the participants during both calcium diets were analysed and recorded.

Low-fat dairy foods were the main source of calcium given to the participants, and the researchers found that increasing dairy calcium from 700mg/day to 2300mg/day more than doubled the fat excreted by the participants. They suggested that the calcium may decrease the amount of fat absorbed by the body and this could potentially lead to weight loss.

Another new study, published in Nutrition & Metabolism, found that consuming three portions of dairy a day, as part of a healthy balanced diet may help with weight maintenance.

The subjects were put on a weight-loss diet for the first three months. Those who lost 10kg or 10% of their body weight, were then divided into two groups and followed for a further six months to see if they would maintain their weight. The first group ate three servings of dairy each day, while the second group ate less than one.

At the end of the study, both groups had similar weight and body composition despite a greater calorie intake by the group which had more dairy.

Being able to eat more calories may make it easier for people to stick to a weight-maintenance diet, suggest lead researcher Dr. Michael B. Zemel of the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and his colleagues. Zemel has received grants from the National Dairy Council, and also holds patents on the use of calcium in weight management.

Previous studies have shown that high calcium diets can reduce weight gain and fat accumulation in overfed rats, and may help the animals burn off fat and pounds when their diet is restricted, Zemel and his team note. Some studies in humans have also found that calcium promotes fat loss, possibly by making it harder for the body to hold on to fat cells.

However, no studies in humans have looked at whether calcium and dairy foods help people maintain their weight. To investigate, researchers had 338 obese men and women cut their calorie intake for 3 months.

Study participants who lost at least 10 percent of their weight or 10 kilograms were then randomly assigned to eat less than a single serving of dairy daily or more than three servings a day for the next 6 months.

During the weight maintenance portion of the study, weight and body composition were similar in both groups. However, people in the high-dairy group were eating 9 percent fewer calories than they were at the study’s outset, compared with 22 percent fewer calories for the low-dairy group.

“This suggests that diets with recommended levels of dairy may be higher in energy content (calories) while producing similar effects on body weight and fat as diets low in dairy,” the researchers write.

The study, by researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, followed 80,000 patients over nine years.

Asked about their diet, those who went on to develop bladder cancer were less likely to have eaten yogurt regularly than those who remained cancer free, the scientists said.

According to the findings, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, a couple of yogurts a day reduced the risk of developing the disease in women by 45 per cent and in men by 36 per cent.

“Cultured milk products, such as yogurt, contain lactic acid bacteria, which have been shown to suppress bladder cancer in rats,” according to the report.

“Our research suggests a high intake (of yogurt in humans) may reduce the risk.”

Rickets first became a problem in the U.S. during the 18th century, in part because smoke from factories shielded people from the sun’s rays — an important source of vitamin D. Rates of the disease, which weakens bones, were brought down through improved nutrition.

“There’s been increased case reports and people describing it over the past five to 10 years; whether this is a true increase is unclear,” said Dr. Steven Abrams, a pediatrician at the Baylor College of Medicine who has been on previous AAP vitamin D guideline committees.

The new pediatric guidelines recommend a daily dose of 400 international units of vitamin D per child per day — doubling the group’s old recommendations.

“The recommendation is going to be essentially a supplement for every child and adolescent in the United States,” said Dr. Frank R. Greer, a pediatrician at the University of Wisconsin and one of the authors of the guidelines.

Greer notes that while children could get an adequate amount of the nutrient from drinking six glasses of milk a day or eating fatty fish such as salmon and mackerel, children are unlikely to do either of those. But he also stresses that parents should not over-supplement their children.

But avoiding rickets may not be the only reason to get those supplements. Another motive for the revised guidelines, according to the AAP, is to build up the body’s defenses.

“More and more studies are suggesting that digestive wellbeing will trump heart health as the number one health concern. The consumer is becoming increasingly aware of the decline in nutritional health and is constantly seeking easy and sensible ways to incorporate better foods and more nutrients in their diet, “said Steve McDonnell, Founder/CEO, Applegate Farms.

While the NFL will pocket a sponsorship fee, “The vast majority (of the money) is really tied to running these programs in schools and also tied to the National Dairy Council providing grants to schools that adopt these programs,” says NFL marketing director Peter O’Reilly.

Part of the deal is that NFL players will make school visits to tout exercise. The groups will also create a “playbook” that outlines activity ideas such as flag football.

This school year, the program will be launched in about 50 schools in seven test markets. It will expand to about 40,000 schools in the next few years, says Jean Ragalie, council executive vice president.

“Research continues to show that for infants and children, milk and milk products are fundamental to a healthy diet,” said Karen Kafer, Vice President of Nutrition Affairs/Health Partnerships at the National Dairy Council (NDC). “We are working in partnership with the AAP to educate parents with children of different ages and health circumstances how to choose the milk products best for them. We want parents to understand that milk is more than just an important source of calcium for their children; it also contains eight other essential nutrients that help build and maintain strong bones, muscles and teeth.”

The AAP continues to emphasize calcium recommendations from its 2006 Report on Bone Health which promotes 3 servings of dairy foods daily for children and 4 servings for adolescents.(2) Likewise, the Dietary Guidelines encourage children from ages 2-8 to consume 3 child-size servings from the milk group each day for a total of 2 cups; children age 9 and older should consume 3 cups per day.(3) Whole, reduced-fat (2%), low-fat (1%) and fat-free milk all provide the same package of vitamins and minerals; the only difference is the amount of fat.

Of the five important nutrients cited in the Dietary Guidelines as nutrients of concern because of inadequate intake by children and adolescents (calcium, potassium, fiber, magnesium and vitamin E), dairy foods are a major source of three — calcium, potassium and magnesium.(2)

His work spans five decades uncovering the positive health benefits – and possibly the cancer-fighting properties – of dairy foods. Dr Parodi’s work in determining the structure and composition of milk fat was so important that in 1998 he was given the honor of naming a major trans fatty acid found in milk, which he called rumenic acid, after the cows’ stomach system, the rumen.

“For a scientist, exploring the unique properties and health benefits of dairy foods has been very rewarding,” he said.

His research has been supported by Australian dairy farmers through dairy research organizations – most recently Dairy Australia. Last year Dr Parodi was honored with the International Dairy Federation (IDF) award at its world summit in Dublin. He has been a recipient of dairy science’s most prestigious national awards – including the Award of Merit from the Australian Society of Australia and the Loftus Hill Dairy Science Award twice.

To determine heart disease risk, researchers from several universities in the United States and Norway measured the kidney function of more than 5,000 older adults ages 45 to 84. They tracked eating patterns and tested albumin-to-creatinine ratio (ACR) — a measure that when too low, can indicate poor kidney function and an extremely high risk for cardiovascular disease.

Researchers found that people who reported consuming more low fat milk and milk products had lower ACR, or healthier kidney function. In fact, low fat milk and milk products was the only food group evaluated that on its own, was significantly linked to a reduced risk for kidney dysfunction.