Drink milk to lose weight!

According to the latest research milk helps satisfy hunger by making people feel full and could be useful in weight loss.

A new study by Australian researchers has found that drinking fat free milk in the morning helped increase satiety, or a feeling of fullness, and led to decreased calorie intake at the next meal, as compared with a fruit drink.

They say the milk helped people to feel full - probably due to the high protein content, lactose sugar, or the thickness of the liquid itself and could be a reason why those concerned about their weight should drink fat free milk at breakfast time.

The research team from the School of Medicine and Pharmacology, University of Western Australia, and the WAIMR Centre for Food and Genomic Medicine, in Perth, found that the milk drinkers ate about 50 fewer calories (or nearly 9% less food) at lunch.

In the study, 34 overweight but otherwise healthy men and women took part in two testing sessions - one in which they were served about 20 ounces of fat free milk, and one in which they were served the same amount of a fruit drink (both beverages contributed about 250 calories to the breakfast meal).

During the four hours between breakfast and lunch, the men and women gauged their feelings of fullness and were allowed to eat until comfortably full at lunch and the researchers found that the milk-drinking adults reported feeling fuller, more satisfied and therefore ate fewer calories at lunch.

The researchers suspect that milk's protein content (providing 16 per cent of the daily value per cup), the lactose (the natural sugar in milk) or simply the thickness of the beverage may play a role in the satiety benefits and suggests that choosing foods that can help enhance satiety is an important success factor in any weight management plan.

The researchers say experts are increasingly focused on small behaviour changes that can make a significant difference when it comes to maintaining a healthy weight and a decrease of as little as 50 calories per day can accumulate in the long term.

They say fat free milk is loaded with nine essential nutrients, including calcium and vitamin D, and contains 80 calories per 8-ounce serving - most dietary guidelines recommend three servings of fat free or lowfat milk each day.

The researchers say several studies have shown that proteins, including whey and casein, are more satiating than carbohydrates which suggests that skim milk would be more satiating than sugar-rich beverages.

The study which is published in the July issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition was supported by the New Zealand milk producer Fonterra.