Linking health and dairy

Dairy promotion based on nutrition is not new. In 1915, the U.S. National Dairy Council advertisements stated that dairy consumption will help consumers “avoid many physical ailments and escape diseases”, even suggesting that 44 percent of the average American family’s expenditures should be spent on dairy. In fact, today’s Americans spend about 10.5 percent of their food budget on dairy, and the thresholds for making nutritional claims are much higher.

But Global Dairy Platform Executive Director Kevin Bellamy believes there is still room for optimism in pursuing the link between health and dairy. He explained why in a presentation to the First Global Dairy Conference organised by Zenith International last March in Amsterdam.

First, he pointed to the strong scientific basis for linking dairy to health, acknowledging that the industry needs to do a better job of communicating the science. In particular, he discussed the benefits of adequate calcium intake (something not achieved by half of all Americans, resulting in healthcare costs of over $14 billion due to more than 1.5 billion osteoporosis-related fractures each year). Calcium also has been shown to reduce hypertension and the risk of kidney stones, improve immune function and promote digestive health. Some dairy components also contain anti-carcinogenic properties.

Dairy’s greatest health opportunity, however, may be in weight management, Bellamy stressed. “Increasing evidence is emerging from epidemiological and clinical studies as to the role that low-fat dairy plays in weight management”, he said at the conference. Studies suggest that high calcium levels, created by the consumption of low-fat dairy, have the effect of reducing fat absorption, inhibiting fat synthesis, accelerating fat breakdown and increasing internal heat production, he stressed.

More recent research shows that dairy can influence both body shape and where fat loss takes place. With one-third of Americans now clinically obese and two-thirds officially classified as overweight, the impact of dairy in this area takes on greater significance for individuals and society at large, noted Mr. Bellamy.

Often, consumers and regulators have not picked up on this positive news about dairy, and there still are concerns about saturated fat and trans fat content, he said. “There is a lack of accepted global health claims that can readily be made, even on issues that are commonly accepted as dairy’s strengths”.

GDP has been formed to “collaborate to build a genuine, scientifically based confidence in dairy itself and to stake dairy’s claim for the mantle of nutritional excellence”, noted Mr. Bellamy. GDP’s mission is simple, he said. “We provide insight, guidance and networking to harness the vast potential and expertise that we have as an industry, as well as to promote and advocate milk and dairy”, Mr. Bellamy added.