Weight management

Milk instead of sugary drinks: good for children’s weight

yogurt-children-1620x800

Because sugary drinks are a considerable concern in the current context of obesity, milk represents a beneficial alternative for controlling the weight of young children better. This is what has come out of this study led among a cohort of 366 young Danish children.

100g of weight for 100g of sugary drinks per day

The team of researchers from Denmark and Australia conducted a secondary analysis of the Healthy Start Study, a 1.5-year randomized controlled trial designed to prevent overweight in young children aged from 2 to 6. Their analysis reveals that sugary drink intake and the substitution of these drinks with milk is associated with a change in weight and BMI. Each increase of 100ml of sugary drink intake is associated with a 100g gain in body weight and 0.06 units of BMI.

Preventing childhood obesity

However, daily substitution of 100g of sugary drink with 100g of milk is inversely associated with weight (-160g) and BMI (-0.07 points). The authors concluded that, in line with the current recommendations, sugary drinks should be discouraged to help prevent childhood obesity and that milk constitutes a good alternative, in particular among young obesity-predisposed children.

Source: Zheng M et al., Replacing sugary drinks with milk is inversely associated with weight gain among young obesity-predisposed children, British Journal of Nutrition, November 2015, Vol 114(9), pp 1448-1455.

Pin It on Pinterest