Drink your milk. (Unless, of course, you have allergies or are lactose intolerant.)
Milk is, and has been, a mainstay of good nutrition, providing calcium necessary for strong bones, protein needed for brain development and tissue growth, vitamin A for normal vision, and vitamin D for absorption of calcium.
But the milk story gets better. Recent research indicates that drinking low-fat milk and including other low-fat dairy products in your diet can help you lose weight and maintain that weight loss.
Including three servings of milk, cheese, or yogurt on a reduced-calorie diet can deliver significant weight loss over just cutting calories. How does it work? These studies suggest that the combination of nutrients in milk help improve your body's ability to burn fat.
Calcium may play an important role in regulating your metabolism and may result in reducing body fat and accelerating weight loss. Milk drinkers in one study lost nearly twice as much body fat compared to those who didn't include milk. They also lost significantly more trunk or belly fat and waist circumference. In addition, those on a milk-rich diet lost a larger percentage of body fat.
It's not just the calcium levels. Study participants who consumed three servings of milk or milk products a day lost more body fat than those who got the same amount of calcium through supplements.
But don't rely on drinking milk to take off that winter weight you accumulated. It takes a reduction in calories in concert with exercise. Be sure the dietary changes you make are changes that you can sustain (you might want to see your doctor about your weight management plans). If you lost the weight but were miserable during the process, it is very likely that you'll revert back to old habits and regain the weight.
UI Weight Management offers a comprehensive weight loss and maintenance program that can help you establish a realistic goal, suggest ways to successfully meet that goal, and then help you maintain the weight that you've worked so hard to achieve.
Which One Do You Choose?
Consider the difference between an eight ounce glass of low-fat chocolate milk (200 calories) and a one and one-half ounce milk chocolate bar (230 calories). For fewer calories, the milk treat is five times larger than the chocolate bar.
Psychological satisfaction can't be ignored. You feel fuller after consuming the chocolate milk, which often equates to feeing more satisfied. And less of a cheat on your diet.
"Although the mechanism of weight loss from milk is unclear, I hypothesize that the high protein content of milk may induce a sustained level of satiety, decreasing overall caloric intake. So it could be that drinking a glass of orange juice may make you reach for the fridge sooner than drinking a glass of skim milk,Ó says Khurram Qadir, M.D., director of UI Weight Management.
Best Start
The best start in life a baby can have is mother's breast milk.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recognizes breast milk as the preferred food for infants, especially premature and sick infants. It protects them from illness. Infants on breast milk have lower hospital admission rates, fewer ear infections, rashes, allergies, and less diarrhea.
To give the tiniest of babies the best possible opportunity to thrive, the Mother's Milk Bank of Iowa stores and distributes human breast milk to those who need it.
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