Nutrition and Health

• Take Steps Now to Prevent Osteoporosis
• Eating Dairy Lowers Systolic Blood Pressure
• Milk - The healthy punch
• Milk, Cheese and Yogurt: The Power of Nine
• Limiting dairy can cause weak bones
• DASH to the Diet - Hypertension and you
• Dairy products and immunity - There is a link
• Milk: What makes it so good for you?
• Calcium: Where else to find it besides milk
• So you're lactose intolerant - What does that mean?

Children

• 'D' ficient teens need more milk
• More Evidence That Milk Makes Bones Stronger
• Drink Milk: Your Kids Are Watching!
• Children and dairy - The earlier the better
• Dairy is key to promoting healthy bones
• Plenty of reasons to smile about flavored milk

Weight Control

• Dairy's role in weight management
• Moderate, regular eating decreases obesity risk
• Calcium enhances weight loss efforts

Health and Nutrition

Plenty of reasons to smile about flavored milk

If kids don't end up with a "milk mustache" when they devour their lunches at school or home, they may not be getting their daily requirement of calcium. But the mustache needn't be white - pink or brown will do. Studies at the University of Vermont found that flavored milks give children the calcium they need in a form they'll actually drink, without adding extra fat and sugar to their diets.

Research recently published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association found that children who consume flavored milk have higher calcium intakes than those who don't. Researchers evaluated data from a current USDA survey. One part of the survey looked at the typical beverage intake of 3,888 children ages 5 through 17. The results showed that children who drink flavored milk consume fewer nutrient-poor soft drinks and fruit drinks than their counterparts who don't drink flavored milk.

And while many moms may be concerned that flavored milk will add to their child's added sugar intake, the study shows that flavored milk actually helps boost their overall calcium intake, without impacting their total added sugar intake. By encouraging flavored milk consumption, parents can help reverse the trend toward soft drink and fruit drink consumption, which are squeezing out more nutritious beverages like milk.

Beverage choices can play an important role in the overall quality of a child's diet. Other earlier studies have shown that children who included milk in their noontime meal were the only ones to achieve the recommended calcium intake for the day.

The current RDA encourages children ages 4 to 8 to have 800 milligrams of calcium a day, or the equivalent of about three glasses of milk, while children ages 9 to 18 need 1,300 milligrams of calcium, or the equivalent of about four glasses of milk. In addition to calcium, milk provides eight essential nutrients, including vitamin D, which helps the body absorb calcium.