Despite the ads - More milk means more weight
 

Washington Post article.

Maybe greedy kids just drink more milk?

My brother, sister and I were milk fiends. We had 3 pints a day delivered to our house. We were all thin as a rail until we were in our 20s - my sister stayed thin through diet and lifestyle, my brother got a paunch that he exercises and diets off in spurts, and I became a pudding through over-eating and drinking.

Milk's calorie count is similar to that of juices and sodas.

Which is why our kids all drink 2% and we eat low fat or no fat Cottage cheese.

We drink a lot of 1% milk in our household. Skinny, we are.

But

An 8 oz glass of milk has as much fat as three slices of bacon.

Do younger kids really care about this? IMO, no. They only want what food and beverages that taste good.

Also, the article doesn't even mention fat free milk, which I drink.

Yes, I'm fat according to the frakkin' BMI, l but it ain't from the milk.

Reading for statistical and numerical literacy: those consuming 4, 5, 6, 7 or more cups of milk per day were 35% more likely to become overweight than those who drank 1 or 2.

One serving of whole milk:

http://cellar.org/2008/wholemilk.png

If a child's diet is 1500 calories per day, 4 cups is 584 calories, approximately 40% of that. That's over a third of required calories just in beverage.

7 cups is 1022 calories or about 70% of the calories needed. So this outcome is expected.

Here's another article (USA Today), about men this time.

Doesn't it all come back to calories? More calories unburned = more weight gain.
I'm sure there are lots of fat people that eschew dairy products by choice or by circumstance... and skinny people that do a lot of dairy.

Milk Type Amount Calories Kilojoules
Reduced Fat / Lite Milk

1 cup - 130 calories - 545 Kilojoules


Milk Type Amount Calories Kilojoules
Skim Non Fat

1 cup - 110 Calories - 460 - Kilojoules

http://www.positivehealthsteps.com/c...calories.shtml

Really the bigger issue and a good reason to drink milk is because the majority of the development of our bone matrix maxes out around the age of 20. Poor calcium intake in the growing years contributes to the formation of osteoprosis and poor bone maxtix in later years. For many of us it is to late. If we could get our kids to take a daily multi-vitamin that includes calcium it would help a lot, but most kids don't take them and most parents don't offer them.

Here is another counter. Be careful as the weight at the top must be selected. Includes all kinds of milk including human.
http://www.thecaloriecounter.com/Foo...79/1/Food.aspx

Merc, doesn't the high animal protein content in milk basically cancel out the calcium content?

"Osteoporosis is caused by a number of things, one of the most important being too much dietary protein."
{Science 1986;233, 4763}

And yes Bruce, I think I agree with you, although I wouldn't discount other factors if there was supportive evidence that wasn't a complete joke paid for by the industry that would benefit from it. This is what I disagree with;

Actually milk is not the best way to consume calcium, it is just the most culturally recognised and easiest to get children to swallow.