U.S. kids get too little dairy, too much milk fat

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Many American children aren't eating enough dairy products and most of the dairy foods they do consume are high in fat, an analysis of US nutritional data shows.

The findings are concerning, because while higher-fat dairy foods don't provide any more calcium, they do contain significantly more calories, Dr. Sibylle Kranz and colleagues from Pennsylvania State University in University Park say.

Current United States Department of Agriculture guidelines recommend two cups of dairy food for children 2-to-8 years old, and 3 cups daily for 9-to-18 year olds. The amounts recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics are higher, Kranz and her team report The Journal of Pediatrics.

To investigate how much dairy food US kids are consuming, the researchers looked at data for 7,716 children and adolescents between 2 and 18 years old from the 1999-2002 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

Dairy consumption for children between 2 and 8 years met or exceeded the USDA guidelines, Kranz and her colleagues found, but the older children ate significantly less than the recommended amount.

Fifty-one and 43 percent of children 2-to-3 and 4-to-8 years old, respectively, consumed full-fat milk. "With the exception of yogurt intake by 2- to 3-year olds and 14- to 18-year olds, most of the dairy products consumed were of the high-fat variety," the researchers write.

The USDA recommends that everyone consume reduced-fat milk rather than whole milk after age 2, and the American Academy of Pediatrics suggests children be switched to reduced-fat milk after age 1, Kranz and her team note.

"There is no evidence showing that replacing high-fat milk products with nonfat milk products will prevent obesity," they add. "Nonetheless, given the lack of additional nutritional benefits from consuming high-fat dairy products, public health messages for children of all ages should encourage the consumption of low-fat or nonfat milk and dairy products."

SOURCE: The Journal of Pediatrics, December 2007.