A recent study found that older women who consumed more dairy had more muscle mass and greater physical performance than women who consumed less dairy.
This study was led by Kun Zhu, PhD, in the Department of Endocrinology and Diabetes in Sir Charles Gardiner Hospital in Nedlands, Western Australia. The research team examined whether dairy intake was associated with body composition and physical performance. A total of 1,456 women, between the ages of 70 and 85, were involved in this study.
The researchers found that women who had 1.5 or more servings of dairy per day had significantly greater whole body lean mass and skeletal muscle mass than women who had less than 1.5 servings per day. The also found that hand grip strength was greater in women who had 2.2 servings of dairy a day compared to women who had less than this amount.
Based on their findings, the study authors concluded that dairy may be connected to more lean mass and better physical performance in older women.
This study appears online in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. This study was funded by research grants from Healthway (the Western Australia Health Promotion Foundation), the Australasian Menopause Society, the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council and the Dairy Health and Nutrition Consortium. The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
Source: Daily Rx