Dairy consumption and 6-y changes in body weight and waist circumference in middle-aged French adults.

BACKGROUND: Some studies have shown an inverse relation between calcium intake and body weight or fat mass.

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to investigate the relations of dairy consumption and calcium intake with 6-y changes in body weight and waist circumference (WC).

DESIGN: Multivariate analysis of variance according to dairy consumption or calcium intake quartile was presented, stratified by sex and body weight status at baseline, in 2267 middle-aged French adults.

RESULTS: The associations between dairy products and anthropometric changes differed according to sex and overweight status at baseline. In overweight men only, 6-y changes in weight and WC were inversely associated with the consumption of dairy products-especially that of milk (P = 0.02 for both weight and WC changes) and yogurt (P = 0.01 and 0.03 for weight and WC changes, respectively). No relation was observed with cheese and calcium intake. Positive relations were found between milk consumption and WC change in overweight women and between yogurt consumption and weight change in normal-weight women. Multivariate analyses showed a trend toward increases in weight with high dairy calcium intakes in normal-weight women.

CONCLUSIONS: The relation of dairy products and calcium intake with changes in weight and WC may differ according to sex, initial body-weight status, and type of dairy products. The negative association between dairy products and anthropometric changes observed in overweight men was not explained by dairy calcium intakes, which suggests that other components of dairy products or specific dietary patterns associated with dairy consumption may help to explain the observed associations.