Last week on the blog, I posted a story about manufacturers wanting to add artificial sweeteners to milk and commented, “I am much more of a ‘leave foods alone’ person. Give me organic, full-fat, hormone-free milk. Give me 100% juice with no HFCS or Splenda additives. Give me full-fat butter instead of margarine any day.”
Now, I am no nutritionist, but I also don’t believe much of the “expert” knowledge on nutrition in the media and haven’t for a long time. First, eggs were bad for you. Then, they were good for you. “Sugar is bad, salt is bad?” I don’t think sugar or salt in moderation are harmful, though I’m extremely wary of artificial sweeteners. I love whole milk. 2% is good too, but anything lower than that fat-wise? It’s just not enjoyable for me to drink, and the protein levels are lowered too. I don’t believe eating fat or drinking fat necessarily makes you fat.
Well, a new study (if we can believe this one!) is now stating the same. From NPR:
If you take fat out of milk, you’ve also reduced calories, which should help protect kids against becoming overweight. At least, that’s been the assumption.
So here’s where things gets confusing. 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.
That’s right, kids drinking low-fat milk tended to be heavier.
…they found the relationship between skim-milk drinkers and higher body weights held up across all racial/ethnic and socioeconomic groups. DeBoer says their data also show that low-fat milk did not restrain weight gain in preschoolers over time.
The study included about 10,700 children in the United States. 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. Direct measurements of height and weight (to calculate body mass index) were taken by researchers.
Interestingly, this is not the first study to point in this direction.
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.
Interesting stuff, indeed.
Karmaqueen255 says
There is a possibility that parents give their children low fat milk because they are all ready overweight. It may not be the cause of their obesity, but just something to try to correct it. Unless a thin child gains weight on skim milk, this theory is crazy.
moredhead says
I grew up on milk straight from the cow.
Real butter we churned etc.
My father poured salt on everything and even poured salt in a glass of water and drank.
He died an 98 with reg. chlorestal etc.
My kids could not drink anything but whole milk when they were born and they are skinny as can be and everything normal.
I have gained a little weight since I retired but gonna work on that.
Go to a lunch room and see what those kids eat and drink.
They throw away most of their lunch and only drink a little of the milk.
With the guidelines why are kids getting fatter.