Role of dairy fat in weight loss to be examined

Professor John Hawley from the School of Medical Sciences at RMIT University has secured a $520,000 grant to examine the role of dairy-rich products in weight loss.

Hawley, awarded the grant from the Dairy Health and Nutrition Consortium, will examine the effect of dairy-based, high-protein, variable-carbohydrate diets and exercise on weight loss and muscle maintenance and functional capacity.

He will be assisted by a team including Professor Louise Burke, Head of the Department of Sports Nutrition at the Australian Institute of Sport in the ACT; Professor Stuart Phillips, Head of Research at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada; and Dr Vernon Coffey, a senior post-doctoral scientist at RMIT.

Professor Hawley said his project would seek to determine which commercially available dairy foods - when combined with appropriate exercise - would facilitate weight loss and in what quantities such products should be consumed.

“Most of us know that as part of a healthy balanced diet we need three to four serves of dairy each day, including at least one serve of milk, cheese and yoghurt,” he said.

“But at the same time there are people running around saying that if you want to lose weight (or more precisely fat mass) then you have to stay away from all dairy products. We think this is nonsense!

“There is a growing body of evidence to suggest that full-fat dairy products may actually be better for weight loss than many low-fat products, especially when it comes to maintaining muscle mass.

“This latter issue is particularly relevant as sarcopenia - an age-related loss of skeletal muscle and functional capacity - is an ever-growing problem in an ageing Australian society.

“So we are looking to bring research science to the question and provide evidence-based facts to assist people who are overweight with permanent, gradual, healthy fat loss.”

Professor Hawley is Head of the Exercise Metabolism Research Group and Professor of Exercise Metabolism in RMIT’s School of Medical Sciences.