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News Alert Archives
Calcium Summit II Reunites National Experts to Strategize New Solutions to Reach and Teach America's Youth
Washington, D.C., January 17, 2002 – Hundreds of nutritionists, government officials and educators as well as many of the country’s leading researchers gathered today to develop an action plan to address a critical health concern facing children and adolescents: calcium deficiency.
Government data indicates that calcium intake remains dangerously low in the diets of children and adolescents. “Poor eating patterns are partly to blame for this shortfall, with over-consumption of low nutrient foods and under-consumption of nutrient-rich foods such as milk,” according to Marc Jacobson, M.D., professor of pediatrics and epidemiology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Schneider Children’s Hospital, and one of the Calcium Summit II speakers.
The problem is particularly troubling for teens: nearly nine out of 10 girls and seven out of 10 boys fail to meet current calcium recommendations (1,300 mg per day for ages 9-18 years). Calcium Summit II, jointly sponsored by the National Dairy Council (NDC), Milk Processor Education Program (MilkPEP) and American College of Nutrition (ACN), highlighted research, which indicates that calcium consumed during adolescence may be one of the single most important factors determining a child’s future risk of osteoporosis.
Battle of the Beverages
While it used to be that lunchtime meant milk time, young people today are faced with an onslaught of other beverages at school, particularly soft drinks. In order to help compensate for funding shortfalls, schools have allowed soft drink and snack companies to aggressively market and sell their products directly to children in schools.
“Teenagers drink twice as much soda as milk, and this trade-off, combined with a lack of exercise, may be laying the groundwork for weak bones in adulthood. Research reveals a link between heavy soft drink consumption during adolescence and reduced bone mass, which can greatly increase the risk of osteoporosis later in life,” said Jacobson.
Building a Calcium Coalition for Action
The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) was one of more than 40 organizations that supported the mission of Calcium Summit II to help America’s youth make improved dietary choices to achieve optimal calcium intakes.
“So many of us see children in our offices who are replacing milk and other calcium-rich foods with excessive amounts of juice or colas,” said Lora Tosi, M.D., member of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons and Chair for the Division of Orthopaedic Surgery/Sports Medicine at Children’s National Medical Center. “We at AAOS believe that, as health professionals, it is important for us to find ways to encourage milk-drinking habits while kids are in the growing years to help reduce the risk of bone fractures.”
Tosi joined other nutrition and medical leaders at today’s Calcium Summit II to help develop an “agenda for action” to address the widespread calcium deficiencies among children and teenagers. These action steps include:
Showing parents how children can easily get at least three servings of dairy a day and encouraging parents to be role models for their children by consuming dairy products at mealtime, too
Offering more milk varieties in schools and fewer soft drinks so children can make healthy food choices more easily
Increasing awareness with pediatricians to include a calcium check-up in their back to school physicals
As a first action step, the NDC and MilkPEP announced a new program providing $30,000 in nutrition education grants for community-based programs to help increase calcium intake among youth.
For more information on the outcomes of Calcium Summit II, log onto www.nationaldairycouncil.org. For easy tips on how teens and kids can consume more milk more often, log onto www.whymilk.com.
The National "got milk?"® Milk Mustache Campaign is jointly funded by America's milk processors and dairy farmers: the National Fluid Milk Processor Promotion Board in Washington, D.C., and Dairy Management Inc., Rosemont, Illinois. The goal of the multi-faceted campaign is to educate consumers on the benefits of milk and to raise milk consumption. A series of educational brochures is available by visiting the milk Web site at www.whymilk.com. . Bozell New York is the creative agency for The National "got milk?" ® Milk Mustache Campaign.
The tagline "got milk?"® was created for the California Milk Processor Board by Goodby Silverstein & Partners and is licensed by the national milk processor and dairy producer groups.
American College of Nutrition, founded in 1959, is dedicated to enhancing the public’s knowledge of nutrition and its application to the prevention and treatment of diseases. The ACN serves as a forum for the interchange of views, professional and educational experiences and research interests in nutrition.
You can rely on the National Dairy Council for credible,
up-to-date news on dairy nutrition research, public policies on nutritional
issues and special dairy nutrition campaigns. Please browse the
News Alert archives or use the search located above the left hand
navigation for more information. If you can't find what you are looking for or
have additional questions, please contact our Nutrition & Health News
Bureau via phone at 312-240-2880 or via e-mail at
ndc@dairyinformation.com.
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