You've probably seen the ads in magazines or on TV. "Milk-cheese-yogurt. Burn more fat, lose weight." Drink 24 ounces of milk every 24 hours and that skinny hourglass figure will be yours. Eat three servings of yogurt every day and squeeze into that itsy-bitsy bikini.

Here's what the ads don't say:

* Only three small published studies have found greater weight loss in people who were told to cut calories and eat dairy foods, and all were done by one researcher with a patent on the claim.

* The government's expert nutrition advisory panel has called the evidence on dairy and weight loss "inconclusive."

* Two new studies have found that dairy foods don't help people lose weight.

* Size. Zemel's published studies looked at a total of just 46 people who consumed extra calcium from dairy foods. That's largely why the federal government's Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee refused the dairy industry's 2004 request that the Guidelines recommend that people eat milk, cheese, and yogurt to lose weight.

The bottom line: the dairy industry's multi-million-dollar ad campaign rests largely on how 46 people reacted to eating more dairy foods in three small studies by one researcher with ties to the dairy industry.

Clearly, Zemel's studies raise some questions that other researchers ought to investigate. But the dairy industry apparently has no qualms about rushing to Madison Avenue with preliminary evidence, as long as it can boost sales.