You’ve read about it in ads:  Milk can help prevent bone loss. Milk will make you stronger. Milk fights cavities, and it may help you sleep better. But can drinking milk also help you lose weight?

That’s the question asked recently by a group of researchers in Israel. They wanted to know if consuming calcium in dairy foods would have an effect on weight loss among overweight people with the condition.

A growing number of studies suggest that a diet rich in calcium helps protect against obesity, although the data are still being debated. In one study, people who ate two servings of yogurt per day for a year more than doubled their calcium intake and lost body fat.

Some experts believe that dairy foods may have an impact on diabetes risk factors, such as obesity. Indeed, as obesity and diabetes have become more common over the past 30 years, people have been drinking less milk. Does that mean that drinking more low-fat milk and eating low-fat dairy products can help people lose weight?