Calcium supplements increase the risk of heart attack by 24% according to a meta-analysis of 8 studies that gave calcium or calcium plus vitamin D, plus data from a ninth study only of the women were were not taking calcium supplements at the start of the study.

However, the total risk of death was only 1% greater in those taking a calcium supplements, and this difference was not statistically significant, that is, it could have been due to random chance.

Calcium supplements increase the risk of stroke by 15-20% according to a meta-analysis of 9 studies. (The risk varied from 15-20% depending on which trials they analyzed and how.)

However, the total risk of death was only 1% greater in those taking a calcium supplements, and this difference was not statistically significant, that is, it could have been due to random chance.

Dairy and dairy calcium have been promoted as increasing weight loss and fat loss according to research supported by the Dairy Management, a marketing creation of the United States Department of Agriculture which was created to help to sell more dairy, milk and cheese. However, this research appears to be bogus, and other researchers have found no evidence of weight loss according to an article in the New York Times.

When Jean Harvey-Berino, chairwoman of the Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences at the University of Vermont, did a study paid for by Dairy Management, a marketing creation of the United States Department of Agriculture which was created to help to sell more dairy, milk and cheese, but found “a high-dairy calcium diet does not substantially improve weight loss beyond what can be achieved in a behavioral intervention”, Dairy Management took the news poorly, threatening to audit her work according to an article in the New York Times.

“If you want to look at why people are fat today, it’s pretty hard to identify a contributor more significant than this meteoric rise in cheese consumption,” Dr. Neal D. Barnard, president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, an advocacy group, said in an interview as quoted in an article in the New York Times about how dairy was promoted for weight loss, but the claims appear to be not true.

People ate an average of 321 fewer calories for the entire day after consuming the high dairy calcium, high vitamin D breakfast compared to when the ate the low calcium, low vitamin D breakfast—1706 calories per day versus 2027.

Subjects lost a similar amount of weight in three months on low-calorie, high-calcium diet whether the calcium was from dairy or non-dairy—18.7 lbs vs 15.8 lbs according to a study by researchers from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, USA.

This represented 10.2 percent of the total fat that they ate.

“During a moderate energy restriction induced weight loss, a high-[calcium] diet causes an increase in fecal fat excretion independent of [calcium] source [that is, calcium from dairy or non-dairy]”, the authors concluded.

People who were unable to digest lactose (milk sugar) as determined by a breath test lost 5.7 lbs less during a three month study than subjects who were able to digest lactose—20.2 lbs vs 14.5 lbs— according to a study by researchers from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, USA.

Subjects were prescribed a reduced-calorie diet containing 30 percent fewer calories than their needs.

“Approximately 70% of the world’s population loses the ability to digest large amounts of lactose after weaning,” the authors noted.

The inability to digest lactose had no effect on urinary calcium excretion or fecal fat loss associated with calcium.

People on a reduced-calorie diet containing 500 mg of calcium per day (low-calcium) for three months excreted an average of 3.8 grams of fat per day—34 calories of fat—according to a study by researchers from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, USA.

This represented 6.8 percent of the total fat that they ate.

People on a reduced-calorie diet containing 1500 mg of calcium per day (high-calcium) for three months excreted an average of 5.8 grams of fat per day—52 calories of fat—according to a study by researchers from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, USA.

This represented 10.2 percent of the total fat that they ate.

“During a moderate energy restriction induced weight loss, a high-[calcium] diet causes an increase in fecal fat excretion,” the authors of the study concluded.

Women who consume at least 1000 mg of calcium per day weigh roughly 15-19 pounds less than those who consume less than 600 mg per day according to a study from researchers at Laval University in Quebec, Canada.

The average body mass index (BMI) for these two groups was 28.4 vs 25.5.

Men who consume at least 1000 mg of calcium per day weigh roughly 17-22 pounds less than those who consume less than 600 mg per day according to a study from researchers at Laval University in Quebec, Canada.

The average body mass index (BMI) for these two groups was 28.7 vs 25.9.

Black diabetic hypertensive men given 600 mg of calcium per day to determine the effect on blood pressure, lost an average 10.8 pounds compared to those not given calcium according to a 1990 study.

Blood pressure decreased from 121 to 114 mm Hg in those given calcium.

Left ventricular mass decreased from 289 to 240 grams. A decrease in left ventricular mass is associated with a decreased risk of cardiovascular problems due to hypertension.

Calcium only reduced weight gain in those eating less than an average amount of food according to a 2002 paper from Robert P. Heaney, MD at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, USA and others.

”[A study by Lin (2000) which involved] 54 normal women 18 to 30 years of age, found significant inverse correlations between calcium intake, adjusted for energy, and change in both body weight and body fat mass over a two-year period of observation,” Heaney wrote.

“Of special interest is the fact that calcium’s negative effect on gain in weight was confined to those subjects below the median energy intake.”

“In other words… if one eats more than one burns, one will store the difference, regardless of calcium intake.”

An additional serving of dairy calcium per day, equal to 300 mg of calcium, is associated with a decrease in body fat of 3.5 to 4.5 percent in children according to a 2002 paper from Robert P. Heaney, MD at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, USA and others.

“Each additional regular serving of a dairy calcium source was associated with 0.9–1.1 kg less body fat and a lower value for percent body fat in the range of 3.5% to 4.5% (depending upon how calculated),” Heaney wrote.

“In their study, body fat averaged 18% of body weight in males and 21% in females at 70 months of age [5- years-and-10-months]. Hence a 3.5% to 4.5% lower value translates to 20% less body fat per regular dairy serving.”

Eating a high-calcium diet containing 2300 mg of calcium per day increase fat excretion by 55 calories per day compared to eating a low-calcium diet containing only 700 mg per day according to a new study from Professor Arne Astrup from the University of Copenhagen in Frederiksberg, Denmark and others.

Fat excretion was an average of 11.5 grams of fat equal to 104 calories per day while on the high-calcium diet versus 5.4 grams of fat equal to 49 calories on the low-calcium diet.

A calcium supplement of 1500 mg per day for three months does not cause weight loss in overweight women, does not increase the burning of fat, and does not increase the release of fat from fat cells according a study from the University of California in Davis, California, USA.

Taking a calcium supplement containing 800 of calcium per day did not increase weight loss in women who were dieting according to a 3-month study from researchers at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, USA. Although some studieshave suggested that increasing calcium might increase weight loss or reduce weight gain, other studies have not.

Studies have suggested that a higher calcium intake may help to prevent weight gain or, as some have suggested, even cause weight loss. Among American Indians, those with a higher calcium intake—greater than 873 mg per day—only weighed 1.8 pounds less than those with a low calcium intake of less than 313 mg per day.

“There is no evidence to support the use of calcium supplementation as a public health intervention to reduce weight gain or body fat in healthy children,” concludes a new review paper from researchers at Menzies Research Institute in Hobart, Australia.

A normal calcium diet containing 1200 mg of calcium per day slightly increases fat excretion by 2.7 grams or 24 fat calories per day compared to a low calcium diet containing only 400 mg per day, but doubling calcium intake to 2500 mg per day does not increase fat excretion any further according to a study from the Nutrition and Toxicology Research Institute Maastricht in Maastricht, The Netherlands.

Consuming lots of dairy while on a diet does not increase weight loss according to a recent study from the Unversity of Vermont. Men and women on a high dairy diet lost an average of 20 pounds compared to 21 pounds for those on a low dairy diet.

Women who consumed less than 1200 mg of calcium per day and who were given a 1000 mg calcium supplement per day were 11 percent less likely to gain either a small amount of weight, defined as 2-7 pounds, or more moderate weight gain, defined as greater than 7 pounds according to a study from Kaiser Permanente of Northern California.

Men and women who consumed three servings of a beverage containing green tea, caffeine and calcium, increased the amount of calories burned each day by 106 calories per day or by 4.6 percent according to a new study from researchers from Lausanne University in Lausanne, Switzerland and Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, USA.

Dietary calcium from dairy products reduces fat absorption, but a supplement of calcium carbonate does not according to a new study from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark.