Do Our Kids Really Need to Drink Milk?

My husband drank a gallon of it a day during his teenage growth spurts. I drank it three meals a day (and never missed Chocolate Milk Wednesdays at school). My son can drink a big carton of Fairlife chocolate milk in no time flat.

But do our kids really need to drink milk? Milk does have the calcium that children and adolescents need for developing strong bones, and is fortified with the vitamin D to get that calcium where it needs to go. On the other hand, parents worry about the hormones milk may contain and read labels carefully for the “no rBst” reassurance. Plus milk has lots of calories.

The physician assistant who did my daughter’s well-check said, “You know, there are actually other good sources of calcium besides milk,” and downplayed the need for three 8-ounce glasses of the stuff daily. I was actually a little shocked. I figured mainstream medicine would always stick to the traditional mantra of 3 cups a day of milk for strong, healthy bones. Because, as the better known mantra goes, milk: it does the body good.*

Yes, milk is a great source of certain vitamins and minerals, as well as protein, another necessary building block for growing kids. Fussy eaters who like milk get protein, calcium and vitamin D all in a few gulps. And vitamin D is found in few other food sources, and while it’s made in the skin, sunscreen and shade limit our bodies’ natural vitamin D production mechanism.

But there are sources who basically condemn cow’s milk as a junk food, horrible for us. Along with the good comes the bad in milk: bovine pus and blood, for example. And while the pasteurization process is necessary to keep milk safe for consumption, pasteurization degrades some of the good vitamins contained in milk. Plus, there are alternative sources of calcium…such as nuts, beans, greens and various nut milks. There are options for vitamin D as well…cereals are fortified with vitamin D (combine with a calcium -rich nut milk for the one-two punch that cow’s milk would otherwise provide) and vitamin D supplements come in chewable, kid-friendly “gummy bear” flavors. Protein, of course, is found in beans, meat and fish.

Despite the campaigns that tout milk as a “superbeverage” the negative dietary impact of milk is mounting:

• flavored milks have a ton empty calories, in the form of sugar
• whole milk is full of calorie-dense saturated fat
• low-fat and skim milks make the consumer feel less full, so more calories than necessary for good health are taken in
• on the flip side, calories from milk replace calories from other nutritious foods
• calcium decreases the absorption of iron, so excessive milk consumption can put the drinker at-risk for anemia

Many studies and reports also aim to dethrone milk:

• building bone mass during adolescence is important to ward off the risk of osteoporosis later in life (40% to 60% of bone mass is added during the teen years). Studies have shown that people who are diagnosed with osteoporosis aren’t necessarily those whose diets are deficient in milk, suggesting that drinking milk may not reduce the risk of osteoporosis.
• weight-bearing activity (aka exercise), not milk consumption, has been crowned as the key element in developing bone mass.
• the risk of obesity increases with the consumption of three or more cups of milk a day
• in 2013 the medical journal JAMA Pediatrics reported that kids in developing countries (where milk isn’t a dietary staple) actually have a lower bone fracture rate than children elsewhere who have access to milk. A possible explanation: increased sun exposure from outdoor physical activity ramps up vitamin D production in the skin, coupled with alternative dietary sources of calcium may help lower the risk of fracture in this population.
• a 2014 report by the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends milk (2 8-ounce cups daily) plus other foods as sources for calcium and vitamin D combined with weight-bearing exercise to build strong bones.

So if the standard three cups of milk a day shouldn’t be our guide for calcium and vitamin D intake, we need an alternative way of measuring how much of each is enough, and where to get both. Check out this article from webmd.com for foods that are rich in calcium and in vitamin D, and for target amounts of each depending on age and circumstance. While sources vary, generally kids from 4 to 18 years of age need 1300 mg of calcium daily, and 600 IU’s of vitamin D.

So should chugging milk be eliminated from the diet completely? Probably not. But like anything else, too much is, well, too much. Try limiting milk and going with alternative healthy sources of calcium, vitamin D and protein. And be sure to get outside and play everyday! (Parents, that’s you, too…)

*the Milk: It Does the Body Good campaign was just a marketing ploy…milk sales were down and this catchphrase was meant to jumpstart the purchase of the white stuff, not to promote good health. Check out the history of misleading milk ads here.