"I don't think the link between low-fat milk and higher weight makes much sense from a biological perspective," he says. A Canadian study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, found children who consumed full fat milk (also known as whole milk) were leaner than. Stephen Daniels, a pediatrician at the University of Colorado and member of the AAP's Committee on Nutrition. "I do think that the recommendation to give low-fat milk at age 2 is sound advice," says Dr. He says he hopes his results lead to further, more definitive studies.īut not everyone is convinced. "I don't think there is harm in rethinking a recommendation, particularly if there weren't rigorous data behind it," says DeBoer. So is it time to think anew about switching toddlers to low-fat milk? "This is speculative," says DeBoer, but if you feel fuller after drinking whole-fat milk, "it may be protective if the other food options are high in calories." In other words, if whole-fat milk saves a kid from eating an extra cookie or a second serving of mashed potatoes, he or she may end up eating fewer calories overall.Īs the authors acknowledge, one of the shortcomings of the new study is that the researchers did not know how many calories the children were consuming overall or what types of foods they were eating. One theory: It's possible that whole milk gives us a greater sense of satiety. When you look at these studies together, DeBoer's findings become more intriguing, though it's unclear how higher fat could lead to lower weight. The researchers concluded that switching from whole milk to reduced-fat milk at 2 years did not appear to prevent weight problems in early childhood. In a 2005 study, researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital reported that skim and 1 percent milk were associated with weight gain among 9-to-14-year-olds.Īnd a 2010 study by researchers at Children's Hospital in Boston, which also looked at preschool-aged children, found that higher intake of whole milk at age 2 was associated with a slightly lower BMI (body mass index). Interestingly, this is not the first study to point in this direction. Direct measurements of height and weight (to calculate body mass index) were taken by researchers. Parents were interviewed about their child's beverage consumption on two occasions: once when the children were 2 years old and again at 4 years. The study included about 10,700 children in the United States. DeBoer says their data also show that low-fat milk did not restrain weight gain in preschoolers over time. Rebecca Scharf, both of the University of Virginia, had hypothesized just the opposite.īut they found the relationship between skim-milk drinkers and higher body weights held up across all racial/ethnic and socioeconomic groups. "We were quite surprised" by the findings, Dr. That's right, kids drinking low-fat milk tended to be heavier. A new study of preschool-aged children published in the Archives of Disease in Childhood, a sister publication of the British Medical Journal, finds that low-fat milk was associated with higher weight. And if you take fat out of milk, you've also reduced calories, which should help protect kids against becoming overweight.
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