Ask Tufts Experts

I’ve heard that vitamins A and D are fat-soluble. So how can they be carried in skim milk? Also, are they absorbed by the body if you drink skim milk without eating a fat-containing food along with it?

Skim, or fat-free, milk is allowed to contain up to 0.5 grams of fat per cup. That amount, though small, is sufficient to carry fat-soluble vitamins A and D and allows for their complete absorption when milk is consumed. Note that the potency of vitamin A may diminish during shipping and storage due to its extreme sensitivity to ultraviolet light. This is less of an issue in whole milk, where an abundance of fat serves as a protective shield. In the case of fat-free milk, opting for milk packaged in opaque containers rather than transparent bottles can minimize vitamin A losses.

I’ve heard conflicting views on whether people lose or gain weight while taking antidepressants. What’s the answer?

It can go either way. People on antidepressants known as SSRIs—Prozac, Paxil, and Zoloft, for instance—may experience rises or falls in appetite (and weight), and nobody knows exactly why, says Peter Kramer, MD, clinical professor of psychiatry at Brown University and author of Listening to Prozac. People often lose a few pounds at first, he notes, and then, if they stay on the medicine for a long time, experience “quite substantial weight gains—much more than they lost initially.”