07.01.07
Two national dairy advertising campaigns overseen by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) have stopped claiming that dairy products cause weight loss because such claims are not supported by existing scientific research, according to the FTC. The decision, which comes in response to an FTC petition filed by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), Washington, D.C. (PCRM), will end claims made in the “Milk Your Diet. Lose Weight” and “3-A-Day. Burn More Fat, Lose Weight” promotions. In the FTC petition, PCRM charged that the dairy industry used false and misleading advertising in its multimillion-dollar, celebrity-filled marketing campaign suggesting that consuming milk and other dairy products causes weight loss. In response, the FTC’s Division of Advertising Practices met with USDA staff and representatives of the National Fluid Milk Processor Promotion Board and the National Dairy Promotion and Research Board, who agreed to discontinue all advertising and other marketing activities involving weight loss claims pending further research into the issue. The decision also applies to affiliated entities, including Dairy Management Inc. The dairy industry’s weight-loss campaign was based largely on small studies conducted by Michael Zemel, PhD, a professor of nutrition at the University of Tennessee whose funding came from dairy industry sources. Independent research, including a recent study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, has found that dairy product consumption either has little or no effect on weight loss or actually increases body weight.