Study: More Milk Means More Weight Gain

Study: More Milk Means More Weight Gain: "Study: More Milk Means More Weight Gain
By Rob Stein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 7, 2005; Page A03
Children who drink more than three servings of milk each day are prone to becoming overweight, according to a large new study that undermines a heavily advertised dairy industry claim that milk helps people lose weight.
The study of more than 12,000 children nationwide found that the more milk they drank, the more weight they gained: Those consuming more than three servings each day were about 35 percent more likely to become overweight than those who drank one or two.
The National Dairy Council claims drinking milk helps people lose weight. (By Tracy A. Woodward -- The Washington Post)
'The take-home message is that children should not be drinking milk as a means of losing weight or trying to control weight,' said Catherine S. Berkey of Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, who led the study, the largest to examine the question in children.
The National Dairy Council has spent $200 million since 2003 to promote the idea that milk can help people lose weight. Some research has suggested that calcium or other elements in milk may cause the body to make less fat and speed its elimination, but the studies produced mixed results.
'I went into this project expecting that drinking milk would have some weight benefit for children. So I was surprised when it turned out the way it did,' said Berkey, whose findings are being published in the June issue of the journal Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. 'The studies are all over the place, but the dairy industry tells children and "