The International Congress on Obesity in Stockholm, Sweden has not just one, but two great presentations today on commonly available dietary supplements for weight loss. You aren’t going to believe what they found really works!

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While there has been some conflicting research in the past, a new study of 70,000 people confirms that “Taking both calcium and vitamin D supplements on a daily basis reduces the risk of bone fractures, regardless of whether a person is young or old, male or female, or has had fractures in the past.” One of the researchers went on to say that this “goes a long way toward resolving conflicting evidence about the role of vitamin D, either alone or in combination with calcium, in reducing fractures.” But as with many research studies, there is more news than the headline would tell you.

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A recent study at Ohio State University seems to stomp on one of the recent dietary supplement approaches to weight loss. As per usual, the study focused on 12 weeks of weight loss which is the research standard for study length. The study found that all participants lost weight on a 500 calorie diet but there was no difference in loss whether dairy or supplement calcium was included. The story is here. Even the researchers aren’t happy since there’s still controversy in the medical literature as to whether calcium enhances weight loss. They are now focusing on markers of bone loss and related chemistry to try and pin down a mechanism.

The study has some shortcomings:

•  500 calories, that’s not much. Do more modest calorie cutbacks benefit from calicum?
• exercise + calcium? Does weight loss accelerate if calcium is added to diet + exercise rather than just diet alone?

Regardless, calcium still remains an important dietary supplement particularly for mature women who need to worry about the risk of osteoporosis.