Milk product ‘tackles obesity’

A NEW food ingredient developed by Glanbia Nutritionals demonstrates that milk components can help tackle obesity by accelerating fat break down while maintaining lean body mass, the World Dairy Summit was told in Dublin yesterday.

Glanbia Nutritionals US vice president for research and development Eric Bastian told delegates that clinical studies using Prolibra — a combination of dairy proteins, peptides and minerals — have proven more effective in weight management than traditional diets and may link to the more severe problem, metabolic syndrome.

According to the World Health Organisation, metabolic syndrome affects 40% of the Irish population with the prevalence higher in men (24.6%) than women (17.8%). The incidence increases with age with 15% of people aged 50-59 years and 24% of those aged 60-69 years affected.