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
Almonds are a fatty nut. They are *naturally* high in omega 6’s. It is very difficult to eat many almonds at a time in nature, because you have to find them, crack them, soak & dehydrate them (or get a stomachache), then eat them. You could never eat as many as you can easily get in almond milk.
After I came to the US, and had kids, I fell into the trap “low-fat milk is better for kids”. My mom in Germany never understood why everything was low fat here, she kept arguing with me how kids need the fat, saying they need it for their brains, their growing bodies…….I thought she is just talking old school. But she was right all along!
Her understanding all came from good German studies and her upbringing. I just didn’t understand the power of lobbyists in the US and the lies one is told to make $$$, only for profit. We are not told what to eat and not to eat in Germany, the main focus of food regulations is to keep the food supply safe from contamination and poisons. It just is different and it took me a while to figure out the US manipulation, the scare tactics they employ
I guess they need the added fat to grow . . . but I heard mothers milk only has 1% . . . but mom’s must provide other things besides the fat content
I’m not sure how many omega 6’s are in my homemade Almond milk made from truly raw organic almonds. I make my own and it is watered down quite a bit and only used in a morning cereal of sprouted buckwheat and fruit. Best beverage is WATER. No veg oils in my diet so I don’t think I’m OD-ing on Omega 6 with my almond milk.
Throughout history of ALL mammals – Cow’s milk is for baby cows! No other mammal on the planet drink’s another mammal’s milk nor do they drink their own species milk beyond their infancy.
Drink whole milk, our body needs the fat. We don’t get fat from fat, we get fat from sugar and grains!
Skim milk was originally pig feed before they figured out how to market it up humans. Db humans that see the words “fat free” or “low fat” and assume it is healthy!
Whole raw milk is the healthy way to go for us :0)
Leslee i think the reasoning behind that is because skim is higher in sugar, and theres no fat for satiation, so they crave more sugary stuff, ive seen in ring true in my own self since increasing my fat intake I hardly ever actually crave sugar, and i drink whole raw milk also btw
I am very thankful that we live in a free-milk state. We get our fresh, wholesome milk straight from a licensed dairy provider who takes the time to talk to us. No more wasting money on processed milks, for us.
It is amazing how fast people were convinced that low-fat milk is healthier for their children. 5-10 years ago all pediatricians recommended that a child should drink whole milk only because they needed the fat for proper growth. The big dairy industry has fooled everyone to make more and more profit. By selling you skim milk at the same price as whole, they make double the profit as they use that fat to make other dairy products like cheese and butter, instead of having to produce more milk fat for other products. They keep fooling everyone in the name of health. How sad…