The Effect of Cow’s Milk Versus Calcium Supplement on the Components of Metabolic Syndrome in Overweight or Obese Women

Background: obesity and metabolic syndrome are seriouspublic health problems. it is suggested that high calcium dietcan improve lipid profile, blood pressure and insulin resistance.methods: in this clinical trial, 75 healthy overweight or obesepremenopausal women were randomly allocated to one ofthe following dietary regimens for 8 weeks: 1) a control diet2) a calcium-supplemented diet containing 800mg/d calciumcarbonate 3) a high milk diet containing three servings of low fatmilk (all of them providing a 500kcal/day deficit). at baseline andafter 8 weeks, waist circumference (wc), blood pressure, serumtriglyceride (tg), fasting blood sugar (fbs), and high densitylipoprotein cholesterol (hdl-c) were measured.results: after 8 weeks, wc, fbs and hdl-c decreased inall groups (p < 0.001), but there were no significant reduction intg and blood pressure. reduction of wc in the milk group wassignificantly higher than the controls (p=0.028). also, reductionof hdl-c in the calcium and milk groups was less than thecontrols (p=0.023 and p=0.019, respectively). changes in fbs,tg and blood pressure were not significantly different amongthe 3 groups.conclusion: we found that increasing milk consumption led tomore wc reduction. milk or calcium intake caused less adverseeffect on hdl-c, but has no effect on the blood pressure, fbsand tg. so increase in milk or calcium intake can reduce wcamong the metabolic syndrome complications.