Which Milk Is Best for Kids?

Should Kids Drink Low-Fat Milk?

"Milk. It does a body good," the National Dairy Council has said. Consuming 2 cups of milk will give you a healthy dose of protein and almost 80% of your daily requirement of calcium.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), cows milk should be avoided during the first 12 months of life. Cow's milk is very difficult for infants to digest and can be stressful to the kidneys and digestive tract.

The AAP goes on to recommend that toddlers who are no longer breastfeeding and who do not drink formula, should drink whole milk, but only until age 2. After age two, toddlers should drink low-fat milk, the group says.

Recently, the AAP went even further and suggested that children ages 1 to 2 years old who are at risk of diabetes or high cholesterol might do well to avoid full-fat milk.

So which milk is better? Whole or low-fat or skim?

Dietary Needs

Children need calcium, vitamin D and protein. A certain amount of fat is necessary in young children for brain development.

Our bodies cannot properly digest the calcium or the protein in milk unless it has a fat "carrier," a chaperone of sorts that can shuttle nutrients to the proper places in the body. Vitamins A, D, B6, B12 and CLA also need this fat chaperone in order to be useful.

The USDA My Plate nutrition guidelines recommend 2 cups of low-fat milk (or equivalent dairy product) each day for children ages 2-3, 2 1/2 cups for children ages 4-8, and 3 cups for ages 9 and older.

Many pediatricians advise parents to feed their toddlers whole milk from age 1-2, and switch to skim or low-fat milk by age 3.

Drinking milk with a higher fat content will result in an increase in calories and that is what many doctors find worrisome. It is no secret that childhood obesity is on the rise and many families are wondering how we can reverse this trend.

Whole Milk - 150 Calories - 8g Fat

2% Milk - 120 Calories - 4.5g Fat (Reduced fat milk)

1% Milk - 100 Calories - 2.5g Fat (Low-fat milk)

Skim Milk - 80 Calories - 0g Fat (Nonfat milk)

What is missed, though, is that most people will eat less when drinking whole milk. The fats, vitamins and other nutrients in a balanced meal work synergistically together to maximize their absorption in the body.

The Controversy

The question posed to parents, doctors and other experts is whether to eliminate whole milk from children's diets as a way to manage a healthy weight. Much of the full-fat vs. no-fat controversy comes from the realization that many children obtain fat from other food. The solution has been to reduce or eliminate fat from kids' diets and substitute the full-fat options with low-fat.

Where the argument falls short is that much of the weight gain in children comes from simple carbohydrates and sugars. Our bodies prefer to store carbs and sugars as fat, not fat as fat.

When a person eats too many carbohydrates (grains, sugar, and starches) their body will use some of the sugar for immediate energy and will convert the rest to fat. This explains, in part, the success of many low-carb, high protein diets in helping people to lose weight. Sugars and carbs are more to blame for weight gain than are actual dietary fats.

The USDA discourages full-fat dairy products to be included in a child's diet. In fact, the USDA recently eliminated whole milk from school menus, citing the increase in childhood obesity as their motivation.

Dr. Tanya R. Altmann, spokeswoman for the AAP, states that the change in switching from recommending whole milk to low-fat milk is because "children now are getting too much fat from other sources."

This theory may be flawed. By serving only low-fat meals, kids might not be getting enough of the fats that they need to be healthy and to assimilate the nutrients from their food.

Disagreement among Experts

The worlds of nutrition and medicine do not fully agree with each other on the topic of full-fat milk vs. non-fat milk or even milk vs. no milk.

Some argue that humans aren't meant to drink cow's milk at all. This is why some people cannot digest milk without serious gastrointestinal problems.

Milk without Fat is an Incomplete Food

One of the most overlooked issues with drinking low-fat milk instead of whole milk is how low-fat milk is assimilated into our bodies. When fat is removed from milk, the ratio of sugar and protein increases, and the body will metabolize the sugar quicker. This can cause a brief sugar "spike," and can be exacerbated when low-fat or skim milk is consumed with other high-glycemic food.

Fat slows down the body's absorption of sugar, reducing sugar spikes and crashes. Remove the fat and you're basically left with water with protein and sugar. Fat acts as a carrier to help us absorb fat-soluble vitamins and to slow the transit of sugar through our body.

Once infants have weaned from breastfeeding, many parents switch them to full-fat milk. Researchers agree that the first two years of life is when brain development is at its most critical. A certain amount of fat is necessary for brain development in young children.

Low-Fat or Whole?

Whole milk, when combined with a well-rounded, healthy diet, is an excellent choice for kids. Whole milk is quite filling which helps kids to feel satiated on smaller portions of their food. Kids who drink whole milk tend to finish it, as the fats help it to taste better.

Choosing low-fat or skim milk can be a good choice when helping an overweight child manage their health. However, it might be better to limit simple carbs instead of removing fats.

Dr. William Spears says, "Feed your toddler a right-fat and not a low-fat diet."

A good diet includes a variety of whole foods, a rotation of fresh fruits and vegetables, and portion sizes that are age appropriate. Rather than fearing fats, we need to become better at choosing good-quality fats instead of fearing them.

You certainly won't cause any harm by switching to low-fat milk but if combined with a healthy diet, whole milk is a good option, too.

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