Got Milk? Teens Who Consume More Dairy are Healthier

on February 24, 2009 at 1:25 PM

milk, teens It almost goes against what one might think, but a new study released in the Journal of American College of Nutrition found that adolescents who consumed closer to the recommended three servings of dairy foods per day had a lower body mass index (BMI) and less body fat than those with lower daily dairy consumption.

Perhaps this has something to do with the fact that older kids tend to gravitate away from milk and toward fattening soft drinks.

"Our research found that adolescents who consumed less dairy had consistently higher levels of body fat," said Dr. Lynn Moore, Boston University School of Medicine and lead author of the study. She also said that these results might show that kids that consume low-fat and fat-free dairy products as part of a healthy diet may even have some protection against adding excess body fat.

A low dairy intake among 12-16 year-olds--less than one serving per day for girls and less than two servings per day for boys--was associated with a higher BMI and greater body fat.

So have your teen take in at least three serving of dairy per day. And yep, chocolate and strawberry milk count!

Does your teenager drink milk?

Filed Under: food, health, teens

Comments (5)

RanaAurora

on Feb 24, 2009 at 1:34 PM

I'll bet you that's the most likely cause, that and the implied bit that teens who drink more milk are more likely to have a healthier, overall diet.

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Julie411me

on Feb 24, 2009 at 1:39 PM

It could also be that teens whose parents continue to provide healthy meals and healthy snack foods and limit the amount of junk and soft drinks brought into the house, naturally just have more dairy products in the home.

jellyphish

on Feb 24, 2009 at 4:47 PM

Hahaha! Which 4th grade class completed this study? Where's the control here? Let's see a study between kids with healthy diets with dairy and healthy diets without dairy instead of healthy diets with dairy and crappy diets. This is just ridiculous.

on Feb 24, 2009 at 10:54 PM

JP, exactly. It's much more likely that the whole DIET was healthier.