A new study published in the Archives of Disease in Childhood, a sister publication of the British Medical Journal, reports that low-fat milk is associated with higher weight in preschoolers. Kids drinking low-fat milk tend to be heavier than those drinking whole milk. Kids drinking skim milk were found to be the fattest of all.
The findings call into serious question the long-held recommendation of pediatricians that parents switch children to low-fat milk at age 2 in order to reduce the risk of weight problems.
It seems this misguided pediatric advice is producing the exact opposite of what was intended.
This large study of 10,700 preschoolers involved interviewing the parents when the children were 2 years old and again at 4 years old. The researchers took direct measurements of each child’s height and weight in order to accurately calculate BMI (body mass index) at both ages.
Researchers found that the kids who drank skim (1%) milk had the highest body fat regardless of race, ethnicity or socioeconomic status.
The 2% milk-drinking children had the next highest BMI (body mass index) followed by the whole milk-drinking children who were the leanest of all.
Dr. Mark DeBoer said in an email to NPR that he and his co-author Dr. Rebecca Scharf, both of the University of Virginia, were “quite surprised” by the findings as they had hypothesized just the opposite.
Dr. DeBoer added that the data also indicates that the use of low-fat milk did not restrain weight gain in preschoolers over time. Â He speculated that if you feel fuller after drinking full-fat milk, “it may be protective if the other food options are high in calories.”
In other words, drinking a glass of whole milk for dinner instead of low-fat or skim milk may prevent a child from eating an extra cookie or two later.
Two Other Studies Indicate Lowfat and Skim Milk Make Kids Fatter
This is not the first study indicating that low-fat and skim milk leads to heavier children.
In 2005, a study published in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine concluded that skim and 1% milk were associated with weight gain in children aged 9-14, but dairy fat was not.
A more recent study in 2010 published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association found that switching from whole milk to reduced-fat milk at age 2 years did not appear to prevent overweight in early childhood.  Â
Take-home lesson for parents? Â Give your kids whole milk as Grandma and Grandpa did. Â Taking the fat out of milk doesn’t help one iota in reducing a child’s chances of overweight and obesity. Â On the other hand, giving a child whole milk appears to be protective of a healthy weight in childhood!
Learn More About Healthy Fats to Stay Slim
Want to learn more about what fats to eat and what fats to avoid to stay slim and healthy? Â Check out my eBook Get Your Fats Straight – Why Skim Milk is Making You Fat and Giving You Heart Disease and Other Surprising Facts About Fats.
Sources
Whole Milk or Skim? Study Links Fattier Milk to Slimmer Kids
Longitudinal evaluation of milk type consumed and weight status in preschoolers
Milk, dairy fat, dietary calcium, and weight gain: a longitudinal study of adolescents
Prospective association between milk intake and adiposity in preschool-aged children
Reducing fat content has nothing to do with reducing the lactose content.
Another book I read discussed how the lack of nutritious fats in our diets deprives our bodies so the brain isn’t able to complete/repair as many of the synapses. Literal dumbing down from lack of proper fats in our diet!
That explains why I craved so many carbs as a kid! Lol
So, my daughters on a strict candida diet & my homeopath has said to do skim milk instead of full fat just to reduce the sugar content of the lactose – she is extremely sensitive & only has milk in the occasional berry smoothee.
Amy, also something to consider is that a lot of people are somewhat lactose intolerant. Maybe, Maddie needs her milk diluted a bit for it to be agreeable with her.
I never much cared for milk period and could only ever drink it if was ice cold. But anyway I really don’t think this true, I’ve seen people get very fat drinking raw whole milk. I drank low fat as a child and I was very skinny like Maddie.
not necessarily a new study this has been a fact and known to most of us who do our investigating and research before we feed our children….FOR A LACK OF KNOWLEDGE PEOPLE PERISH… dont believe everything your dr. tells you…do your homework!!!!
Is science finally catching up with reality?!? I’ve known this for years!
I’ve been aware of this for a few years so I’ve mostly stuck with whole raw milk. However, my daughter prefers low fat or skim milk (her preschool served it and she enjoyed it, to my horror). Is it advisable to serve slightly watered down whole milk? She likes and will drink it that way, with ice cubes, but never straight up whole milk.
We have raw milk for my family but in AK we can’t get full grass fed milk all year. But it’s better then the other stuff. We love it and make yogurt, and cheese from it too. Tastes so much better then store bought!