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Healthy Weight: Results from Studies in Children and Adolescents

Children

Data from the Framingham Children’s Study, which consisted of 92 children aged 3 to 6 years, have shown results:

• Children in the lowest tertile of milk product intake had significantly higher gains in body fat during childhood than those in the highest;
• Girls who ate < 1.25 servings of milk products daily and boys who ate < 1.70 servings gained more than three additional millimetres of subcutaneous fat per year (according to skin fold measurements). By the time they had reached early adolescence, they had an extra 25 mm of subcutaneous fat.

In a randomized controlled trial of 176 children aged 3 to 5 years, it was found that among children whose usual dietary calcium consumption was below recommended amounts, those randomized to receive calcium supplements had a significantly smaller gain in fat mass than those taking placebo.² These findings did not hold true for children in higher tertiles of dietary calcium intake, indicating that the benefits of calcium and/or milk product consumption with respect to weight management are more important for those with lower habitual milk product and/or calcium intakes.

In a prospective cohort study of 52 children who were followed from the ages of 2 months to 8 years, a calcium-rich diet was significantly associated with a lower percentage of body fat.³

• Children could reduce their body fat by 0.4% if they increased their calcium intake by one 8 oz. glass of skim milk or with 8 oz. of yogurt per day;
• Milk products were the major contributors to children’s calcium intake over time, while milk alone provided about 50% of the total calcium intake;
• An increase in carbonated beverages and other low-nutrient beverages such as fruit drinks were significantly associated with a decrease in calcium intake.

Conversely, a cross-sectional study based on data from the NHANES cohort (1988-1994 and 1999-2002), which included 6,095 children aged 5 to 11 years, found no consistent association between milk product intake and anthropometric indices of body fat.⁴ However, they did find an association for adolescents as described below.⁴

Adolescents

In a cross-sectional study based on NHANES data from 1988-1994 and 1999-2002 involving 4,520 adolescents aged 12 to 16 years, a significant inverse association was found between milk product intake and indices of body fat.⁴

• The lowest groups of milk product intake (< 1 serving per day for girls and < 2 servings per day for boys) had higher levels of body fat than those in the highest intake group (≥ 3 servings/day);
• Body mass index and skin fold measurements were significantly lower in girls and boys who consumed the most milk products (≥ 3 servings/day) compared to those who consumed the least (< 1 serving/day).

In a longitudinal study of 172 girls aged 11 years, those who met or exceeded 3 daily servings of milk products reported significantly higher energy intake but had lower weight status and percentage of body fat.⁵

Similarly, in another longitudinal study of 323 young girls of Asian and Caucasian origin aged 9 to 14 years, those who consumed more calcium from milk products tended to weigh less and have significantly less abdominal fat than girls who ate fewer milk products.⁶

• Total calcium and dairy calcium intakes were both significantly associated with lower adiposity;
• Dairy calcium had a significantly stronger association with lower body fat than total calcium intake, and its effect was greater among girls of Asian ancestry than Caucasians;
• One serving of milk per day was associated with a 0.78 mm smaller iliac skinfold thickness. The effect was stronger in Asians (1.89 mm smaller) than in Caucasians.

A retrospective study of 121 adolescents (mean age 14.9 ± 2.2 years) indicated that those with the lowest calcium intake had the highest body mass index, and those who were overweight consumed substantially fewer milk products than their normal-weight counterparts.⁷ Eighty percent of subjects—one third to one half of whom were overweight or obese—consumed less than 800 mg calcium/day and only 2.5% exceeded adequate calcium intake.⁷

Keywords: healthy weight, health studies

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