Lawsuits Challenge Dairy Weight Loss Claims
June 28, 2005 -- A vegetarian activist group filed a pair of lawsuits Tuesday to try to stop what it calls a false and misleading ad campaign connecting dairy consumption with weight loss.
The group is upset over dairy producers' $100 million "milk mustache" advertising campaign, part of which advises consumers that consuming dairy products can help speed weight loss.
The ads are widespread in magazines and newspapers and on the Internet. A web site for the campaign tells consumers that they can "slim down with milk."
The site, owned by the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA), states: "Studies suggest that a reduced calorie eating plan that includes 24 ounces of fat-free or low-fat milk a day may give your weight loss efforts a boost. Milk seems to help by cranking up your body's ability to burn fat -- particularly around the middle."
But activists attacked those claims Tuesday, saying that the vast majority of scientific studies have found that dairy consumption has no effect on body weight.
Representatives of the IDFA would not comment on the lawsuits, saying they had not yet reviewed them. But Isabel Maples, a spokeswoman for the National Dairy Council, tells WebMD that the industry does not claim that milk consumption is a "magic bullet for weight loss."
The National Dairy Council is a WebMD sponsor.
"It is an emerging science. We certainly feel very confident that we have been responsible in not trying to jump on the bandwagon and make it more than it really is," she says.
A class-action lawsuit filed in Virginia by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) charges several major food companies and dairy industry groups, including the IDFA, with mounting "a massive, deceptive advertising campaign" connecting dairy consumption with weight loss.
The PCRM is a controversial group that advocates good health and nutrition through a strict vegetarian diet. On its web site, the group makes associations between multiple medical conditions and eating animal-based foods. These include linking consumption of dairy products to arthritis pain, bone fractures from osteoporosis, and the development of multiple sclerosis. \
Lawsuits Challenge Dairy Weight Loss Claims
Vegetarian Group Says Dairy Industry Ads Touting Weigh Loss Are Misleading
June 28, 2005 -- A vegetarian activist group filed a pair of lawsuits Tuesday to try to stop what it calls a false and misleading ad campaign connecting dairy consumption with weight loss.
The group is upset over dairy producers' $100 million "milk mustache" advertising campaign, part of which advises consumers that consuming dairy products can help speed weight loss.
The ads are widespread in magazines and newspapers and on the Internet. A web site for the campaign tells consumers that they can "slim down with milk."
The site, owned by the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA), states: "Studies suggest that a reduced calorie eating plan that includes 24 ounces of fat-free or low-fat milk a day may give your weight loss efforts a boost. Milk seems to help by cranking up your body's ability to burn fat -- particularly around the middle."
But activists attacked those claims Tuesday, saying that the vast majority of scientific studies have found that dairy consumption has no effect on body weight.
Representatives of the IDFA would not comment on the lawsuits, saying they had not yet reviewed them. But Isabel Maples, a spokeswoman for the National Dairy Council, tells WebMD that the industry does not claim that milk consumption is a "magic bullet for weight loss."
The National Dairy Council is a WebMD sponsor.
"It is an emerging science. We certainly feel very confident that we have been responsible in not trying to jump on the bandwagon and make it more than it really is," she says.
A class-action lawsuit filed in Virginia by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) charges several major food companies and dairy industry groups, including the IDFA, with mounting "a massive, deceptive advertising campaign" connecting dairy consumption with weight loss.
Charges of False Advertising
The PCRM is a controversial group that advocates good health and nutrition through a strict vegetarian diet. On its web site, the group makes associations between multiple medical conditions and eating animal-based foods. These include linking consumption of dairy products to arthritis pain, bone fractures from osteoporosis, and the development of multiple sclerosis. \
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