Milk, Does a Body Bad?

June 9, 2005 — -- A snowy white glass of milk is traditionally viewed as a cupful of good nutrition. But recent findings that too much milk is a recipe for weight gain leave many parents in a quandary.

What should a child drink?

"We are saying that if a child has a weight problem, their first beverage choice should be water," said Helaine Rockett, research nutritionist at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard University in Boston, and one of the lead authors of the study, published in this month's journal Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

For years, children have been urged to drink plenty of milk. The National Dairy Council has used slogans to reinforce the idea that milk is good for you with "Milk -- it does a body good" ads. More recently, the National Dairy Council has spent $200 million since 2003 to promote the idea that milk can help people lose weight.

But the study found that teens who drink more than three servings of milk a day actually gained weight, rather than lost it.

"Milk has calories and there's an advertisement out there that says if you drink milk you will lose weight," Rockett said. "But if you eat or drink too much of anything you will gain weight."

A spokeswoman for the dairy council said the promotion campaign says consumption of dairy products has been shown to promote weight loss in adults.

"We see this study about calories and not about milk," said Teresa Wagner, director of dairy confidence and medical outreach at the council. "We don't promote strategies for weight loss in children."

The three-servings-a-day strategy that the dairy council promotes adds that the three servings are to be included in a reduced-calorie diet.

The study looked at about 13,000 children ranging in age from 9 to 14 years old from 1996 to 1999. It was designed to examine the dairy industry's suggestions that drinking milk promotes weight loss.

It was a surprise to the researchers, according to Rockett, that all the children in the study drank low-fat milk rather than whole milk.

"Contrary to our hypotheses, dietary calcium and skim and 1 percent milk were associated with weight gain, but dairy fat was not," the researchers wrote.

It could be that the kids drink lower-fat milk more freely. Thus, it may not be milk itself but the calories in milk that are to blame, biostatistician Catherine Berkey, who led the study, said in a statement.

"The take-home message is that children should not be drinking milk as a means of losing weight or trying to control weight," Berkey said.

It's estimated that about 16 percent of American children are overweight.

An eight-ounce serving of whole milk has 150 calories, 1 percent milk has 100 calories in an eight-ounce cup and skim milk has 85 calories. But the calories add up.

"Children who drank more than 3 servings a day of milk gained more in BMI than those who drank smaller amounts," the researchers wrote. BMI -- body mass index -- is a measure of body fat based on height and weight.

"The U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Guide Pyramid recommends two to three servings per day from the milk, cheese, and yogurt group, primarily to promote adequate calcium intake for the prevention of osteoporosis in old age," the researchers noted.

"Given the high prevalence of lactose intolerance, the energy content and saturated fat in milk, and evidence that dairy products may promote both male [prostate] and female[ovarian] cancers, we should not assume that high intakes are beneficial," they added.

"Furthermore, these cancers may be linked to consumption during adolescence."

The researchers could not tell if the gained weight was body fat or muscle.

ABC News Medical contributor Dr. David Katz told "Good Morning America" that muscle and bone gain is part of what milk is good for.

"The study is important because it does refute the claim by the dairy industry that drinking milk can help with weight gain," Katz said.