The assertion that consuming foods high in calcium helps contribute to weight loss got another boost in an editorial in the June issue of Nutrition Reviews.
A meta-analysis summary in the issue shows “a highly significant, positive effect of calcium supplementation on total weight loss and a somewhat larger effect on fat loss,” says Robert Heaney, an endocrinologist with Creighton University, writing an editorial in the same issue.
Heaney notes the weight loss claim has been characterized as controversial, but asserts the better term would be “confused…. There is actually very little that is controversial about the facts.”
The authors report about 1.6 lb. of weight loss over six months, or an annualized weight loss of 3.3 lbs. “For a population confronting secular weight gain (e.g., otherwise healthy women at mid-life), this same weight effect is huge,” writes Heaney.
