Tuesday, June 07, 2005

Milk may cause weight gain in kids

A survey of more than 12,000 children aged 9 to 14 showed that those who drank more milk weighed more than those who drank less.

"Children who drank the most milk gained more weight, but the added calories appeared responsible," the team at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard University in Boston wrote in their report, published in the journal Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

"The take-home message is that children should not be drinking milk as a means of losing weight or trying to control weight," Berkey said.

Dr. Walter Willett of the Harvard School of Public Health, who worked on the study, said he was concerned about the heavy advertising of milk.

"The basic beverage should be water," Willett added. "We know that in many parts of the world, kids don't drink any milk at all and they end up with healthy bones."

In March a study in the journal Pediatrics showed that exercise was at least as important for building strong bones in children as eating calcium-rich foods was.

Children who drank more than three servings a day were 25 percent more likely to become overweight than those who drank two to three servings a day.

Bonnie - The USDA's 2005 MyPyramid now recommends 3 dairy servings daily for everybody!

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