Eating more dairy didn’t change the hormone that regulates calcium in the blood—so the body’s calcium system didn’t respond the way some theories predicted.

Scientific Claim

In overweight and obese adults on a 12-week energy-restricted diet, serum parathyroid hormone levels remain unchanged with increased dairy intake, suggesting that the calcium-vitamin D-parathyroid axis is not significantly modulated by dairy consumption under these conditions.

Original Statement

“Furthermore, the stability of the vitamin D levels explains the lack of a significant change in serum PTH.”

From study:Dairy Foods in a Moderate Energy Restricted Diet Do Not Enhance Central Fat, Weight, and Intra-Abdominal Adipose Tissue Losses nor Reduce Adipocyte Size or Inflammatory Markers in Overweight and Obese Adults: A Controlled Feeding Study

Evidence Quality Assessment

Claim Status

appropriately stated

Study Design Support

Design supports claim

Appropriate Language Strength

definitive

Can make definitive causal claims

Assessment Explanation

The study directly measured PTH and found no change, and the authors correctly interpret this as evidence against the proposed mechanism. The claim is appropriately definitive.

Evidence from Studies

Supporting (1)

Dairy Foods in a Moderate Energy Restricted Diet Do Not Enhance Central Fat, Weight, and Intra-Abdominal Adipose Tissue Losses nor Reduce Adipocyte Size or Inflammatory Markers in Overweight and Obese Adults: A Controlled Feeding Study

Randomized Controlled Trial

Human

2011

Even though people ate more dairy and their vitamin D levels went up, their parathyroid hormone levels didn’t change—meaning the body’s calcium-regulating system didn’t react much to the extra dairy.

Contradicting (0)

No contradicting evidence found

Source Study

Dairy Foods in a Moderate Energy Restricted Diet Do Not Enhance Central Fat, Weight, and Intra-Abdominal Adipose Tissue Losses nor Reduce Adipocyte Size or Inflammatory Markers in Overweight and Obese Adults: A Controlled Feeding Study

Score: 48

DOI: 10.1155/2011/989657

Similar Assertions

Even though people ate more dairy, their body didn’t make more of the active form of vitamin D—so the hormone that might affect fat cells stayed the same.

79%

People who eat more dairy while dieting end up with higher levels of vitamin D in their blood than those who eat less dairy—even if they both started out low on vitamin D.

77%

Eating more dairy doesn’t make your body burn more calories at rest—your metabolism stayed the same whether you ate a lot or a little dairy while dieting.

73%

When overweight or obese people eat fewer calories and either eat a little dairy or a lot of dairy, they lose about the same amount of weight and belly fat—dairy doesn’t help them lose more.

71%

Eating more dairy while dieting didn’t make bad cholesterol go up or good cholesterol go down—it didn’t hurt heart health markers at all.

70%