Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Did Big Milk Lie to the FTC?

"You don't have to be a hero to feel invincible. That's why I drink milk. The protein helps build muscle and some studies suggest teens who choose it tend to be leaner. Cheers to that"
So I don't know if you remember, but I sure do - the FTC challenged Big Milk to prove their weight loss claims and of course since the studies Big Milk based their claims off of were all pretty much relegated to very small experiments done out of a lab funded by Big Milk where the professor involved has an actual patent on weight loss claims related to milk consumption, Big Milk reported that they would back off the weight loss advertising until the claims were in fact more substantiated.

That was back in May and then Lydia Parnes, the Director of the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Consumer Protection reported milk producers and processors had agreed to change the advertisements,
"until further research provides stronger, more conclusive evidence of an association between dairy consumption and weight loss."
Now I suppose the word "leaner" may be a means to circumvent the FTC's concerns, but frankly to me the word leaner certainly still implies weight loss.

I read the medical literature pretty carefully and milk is no where near being proven to be a helpful weight loss aid and furthermore no where near being proven to possess any magical lean body mass increasing properties.

Once again, shame on you Big Milk.

FTC, where the heck are you guys in terms of following up on these ridiculously misleading and scientifically unfounded claims and advertisments - advertisements that now directly target children and teens?