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Nutrition & Health News Alert January-March 2004
Vol. 8 No. 1

More Proof that Milk Helps Keep Kids Fit
In an effort to explain the rising rates of childhood obesity, researchers have compared past eating patterns with more current eating patterns of American children and adolescents. According to one commentary, changes in our environment have negatively affected children’s eating habits as they are now eating more fast food and soft drinks while foregoing milk. Researchers compared food consumption data from 1977 and 1994 and found that milk drinking decreased from 72% to 57% in adolescent girls, soda drinking increased by 65% in adolescent girls and 74% in adolescent boys and the amount of food kids ate away from home increased by 300%. The authors suggest at least two factors may explain the rise in overweight children. First, children may eat more because they do not feel full after drinking soft drinks. Second, recent research links adequate intake of calcium and dairy foods to lower body weight, thus, a decrease in the amount of dairy foods eaten may make weight regulation more difficult.

A separate study, also evaluating children’s eating patterns, shows that eating cereal with milk may help keep kids’ weight in a healthy range. Using self-reported food diaries, researchers looked at the eating patterns of 603 American children, ages 4-12 years. Analysis showed that those children who consumed the most cereal with milk (8 or more servings over two weeks) had lower Body Mass Indexes (BMI) than those who consumed 3 or fewer servings. In addition, the children who ate cereal with milk most days, ate less fat and more nutrients and had a significantly lower risk of becoming overweight. The authors suggest that the calcium in milk (which is often added to cereal) may be a factor in the positive findings. Eating cereal and milk may promote healthy body weight and improved nutrient intakes in children.

St. Onge M-P, et al. Changes in childhood food consumption patterns: a cause for concern in light of increasing body weights. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition , 2003; 78:1068-1073.

Albertson AM, et al. Ready-to-eat cereal consumption: Its relationship with BMI and nutrient intake of children aged 4 to 12 years. Journal of the American Dietetic Association . 2003; 103:1613-1619.

Teens Get More Calcium When Parents Encourage Milk-Drinking
A recent study shows that young teen girls get more calcium when their parents encourage them to drink milk. This study focused on primarily Asian American, low-income girls averaging 13 years of age, only 20% of whom were meeting the current calcium recommendation. In addition to parental encouragement, the girls’ responses indicate that they had higher calcium intake if: they ate breakfast, they had friends who encouraged milk drinking, they preferred dairy foods, they had access to cheese and yogurt, and their fathers also drank milk. Thus, researchers emphasize that role modeling and family education about cost effective ways to boost calcium intake are important to help teens meet their calcium needs.

{Editor’s note: Teen girls and boys need 1300 mg of calcium daily or 4 servings from the milk group each day. When it comes to value, milk delivers more calcium and more protein per penny than any other food.}

Lee S, et al. Environmental and behavioral factors are associated with the calcium intake of low-income adolescent girls. Journal of the American Dietetic Association . 2003; 103:1526-1529.

Milk’s Nutrient Package Benefits Bones
In a recent study, researchers in Malaysia confirm a finding that Americans often take for granted—milk may help prevent bone loss. The study followed 200 post-menopausal Asian women for two years. The women who drank two glasses of high-calcium milk (made from nonfat dry milk) each day for two years showed significantly lower rates of bone loss in both the hip and spine when compared to the women in the control group who did not drink milk.

Researchers propose that milk’s unique nutrient package of bone building calcium, protein, vitamin D, phosphorus, magnesium and zinc can help slow bone loss, therefore including milk in the diet over the long-term may help reduce the risk of osteoporosis.

Chee WSS, et al. The effect of milk supplementation on bone mineral density in postmenopausal Chinese women in Malaysia. Osteoporosis International . 2003; 14: 828-834.

Combat Colon Cancer with Dairy
A growing body of research suggests that high calcium intake may lower the risk of colon cancer and that vitamin D may have a similar protective effect. A recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association identified diets high in vitamin D and cereal fiber as protective in decreasing the risk of abnormal cell growth in the colon (which may lead to colon cancer). This study of 3,121 people (mainly men) aged 50 to 75, evaluated several risk factors, including diet. Researchers found high vitamin D intake and high cereal fiber intake may reduce the risk of abnormal cell growth in the colon.

In a separate study of 803 people, researchers looked at independent and joint effects of calcium supplementation and vitamin D status on colon cancer recurrence. The researchers concluded that calcium and vitamin D appear to act largely together, not separately, to reduce colon cancer recurrence. Such emerging science has researchers suggesting that eating dairy products may help lower colon cancer risk.

Lieberman DA, et al. Risk factors and advanced colonic neoplasia and hyperplastic polyps in asymptomatic individuals. Journal of the American Medical Association . 2003; 290:2959-2967.

Grau M, et al. Vitamin D, calcium supplementation, and colorectal adenomas: Results of a randomized trial. Journal of the National Cancer Institute . 2003; 95: 1765-1771.

Want to Eat Less Without Feeling Hungry? Try Dairy Foods
Researchers at the University of California, Davis have suggested that incorporating dairy foods into a lowfat meal may help people feel fuller, longer and help decrease overeating. Over a four-week period, 24 male and female subjects between ages 21 and 50 were randomly given a total of four meals, with and without dairy and with varying amounts of calories and fat. Blood levels of cholecystokinin (CCK; a hormone shown to slow digestion), insulin, glucose and fat were measured periodically following the meals. Consumption of the dairy containing meals produced higher concentrations of CCK than non-dairy meals, and the use of dairy products in the low fat meal resulted in an insulin response that was about half the response of the non-dairy meal.

Results suggest that when the overall fat content of a meal is low, dairy fat can enhance CCK and reduce the glucose and insulin response following that meal, resulting in a greater feeling of fullness.

Schneeman, B, et al. Incorporating dairy foods into low and high fat diets increases the postprandial cholecystokinin response in men and women. Journal of Nutrition . 2003; 133: 4124-4128.

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