Dairy Council conference spreads health message

The UK Dairy Council yesterday held a Diet & Health conference geared at getting the message of the diverse health-promoting properties of milk out to health professionals and as such on to consumers.

The non-profit organization is jointly funded by UK farmers and processors and its mission is to promote awareness on scientifically based information on dairy. Thursday's conference at King's College London saw nutritional information presented to over 200 delegates including health professionals.

The underlying motivation behind the conference was to combat misinformation surrounding diary and present research showing how it can enhance a healthy diet.

"We want to give information on dairy as part of a healthy and well-balanced diet," Dairy Council director Judith Bryans said. "And that's why the theme of the conference was diet and health rather then diet and dairy."

The dairy council wants to show consumers that dairy has a whole range of potential health supporting applications.

"Dairy foods have a lot going for them, but people tend to think of only calcium and dairy," said Bryan. "There's a lot more than that."

Topics were listed under the broad banners of diet and bone health, nutrition and colon cancer, trans fatty acids and health, and diet and dental health. However, dairy did surface within these topics because of its nutrient content.

For instance, Creighton University's Professor Robert Heaney spoke on osteoporosis prevention and nutrients that can be derived from many sources, such as milk.

"Calcium was the first to be recognized as critical, but it is now becoming clear that vitamin D, Protein, phosphorus, zinc, magnesium, copper, and vitamins C and K, are also needed," said Heaney. "Dairy foods are a principal dietary source for a host of these nutrients, which are needed for health."

The presentation on diet and weight control looked at calcium's potential health-supporting role for weight loss.

This topic has proved controversial in the US, where the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the nation's dairy industry were recently obliged to stop making claims in their advertising that dairy products cause weight loss.

"The important thing for us was to engage with these health professionals so that they can take this information and the new messages back to their practices," said researchers.

Steve - the Dairy Council is very worried that milk is fading as the bane of dietary existence. The need to rampu up the propaganda machine.