THURSDAY, July 6 (HealthDay News) -- A new study finds that calcium may do double duty in middle age, building bone strength while helping prevent weight gain.

Calcium supplements seem to have the greatest impact on maintaining weight, and may even aid weight loss. Supplementation seemed to benefit women even more than men, noted researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.

The study was funded by grants from the U.S. National Cancer Institute.

Reporting in the July issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, the researchers followed 10,000 men and women in their mid-50s for between eight and 10 years. Dietary calcium and supplemental calcium intakes, as well as total calcium consumption, were studied and analyzed and compared to weight loss or gain throughout the study period.

Although previous research had examined a similar link, those studied the relationships between dietary calcium and weight rather than supplements.

The Seattle team noted that while "dietary calcium alone had no significant effect on 10-year weight change," women who received calcium supplementation did tend to experience some weight loss.

"Although more evidence from randomized clinical trials is needed before calcium supplements can be recommended specifically for weight loss, this study suggests that calcium supplements taken for other reasons (e.g., prevention of osteoporosis) may have a small beneficial influence on reducing weight gain, particularly among women approaching midlife," the study authors wrote in a prepared statement.

Another study, published in the same journal, examined the relationship between education and nutritional advice.

The study found that adults over age 50 with less than four years of college education turn to their doctors, neighbors and their television for nutritional advice and information more often than their better-educated peers do.

"Education level, more than any other socioeconomic factor, can predict disease risk, health behavior patterns and diet quality," researchers at the USDA Human Research Center on Aging, Tufts University, Boston, said in a prepared statement. "It has been suggested that one reason higher education promotes more healthful diets is that better-educated people may get better nutrition information," they said.

More information

The Mayo Clinic has more information on choosing a calcium supplement.