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accept themselves:
Real Beauty Your Beautiful Like a Rainbow!
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More Youth
Replacing Milk With Sugary Drinks
Result:
Less Calcium and Other Nutrients, More Empty Calories
Many kids give up milk for sodas and
fruit drinks as they mature, and their bodies may be paying
the price.
This study found that milk is a primary source
of nutrients in a child's diet, but milk consumption steadily
declines as children grow older, which may prevent older
children and teenagers from consuming the nutrients they need
for growth and development.
Calories consumed from milk dropped as
children matured, while calories from sodas and fruit drinks.
Who's Drinking What
What do American kids and teens drink? It
depends on their age.
Little kids are the most likely to drink milk,
but that often changes as they mature. Milk provides 13% of
daily calories for children aged 2-5 years, 9% for those aged
6-11 years, and 6%-7% for teens aged 12-18 years, says the
study.
The reverse is true for sodas and fruit
drinks; teens drank the most of those sugary beverages. Sodas
and fruit drinks account for 7% of daily calories for the
youngest kids, 9% for children aged 6-11 years, and 12%-13% for
those aged 12-18 years.
The data was based on 1999-2000 government
food surveys. Milk included flavored milks. Fruit drinks did not
include juices.
Calcium Consequences
Milk was a leading source of calcium and other
nutrients (phosphorus, magnesium, and potassium) for all age
groups. By sidelining milk, older children and teens could fall
short in those areas.
Of course, milk isn't the only source of
calcium. Some juices and cereals are fortified with it; leafy
greens contain some calcium, and supplements are widely
available. The nutrient is important throughout life, not just
for little kids, health experts say.
Sodas and fruit drinks were only a leading
source of vitamin C and made up 35%-58% of added sugars in the
kids' diets. Milk was responsible for 1%-2% of added sugars, the
study shows.
Milk did provide more fat -- 6%-17% of kids'
total fat consumption, compared with less than 1% of total fat
for sodas and fruit drinks. But the calories in sodas and fruit
drinks had little to offer in terms of nutrition.
Weighty Impact?
Murphy's study didn't get into the issue of
childhood obesity. But past research has indicated that kids who
down too many sugary drinks gain more weight than their peers
who drink less of the same beverages.
In 2003, a study in the Journal of
Pediatrics reported that kids who drink more than 12 ounces
of sweetened drinks gained significantly more weight than those
who drank less than 6 ounces of similar drinks.
SOURCES: Experimental Biology
2005, San Diego, April 2-6, 2005. News release, Weber Shandwick.
WebMD Medical News Archive: "Too Much Soda, Juice Makes Kids
Fatter."
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Calcium plus protein
equals strong bones
Getting enough calcium is essential
for building and maintaining healthy bones, but new
research suggests that protein may also play an
important role in preventing bone loss.
During a 3-year study of 342
elderly men and women who were taking
calcium citrate malate and vitamin D supplements found
that bone mineral density increased most in people
whose diets contained the most protein. Whether
protein came from mainly animal or plant sources did not
affect the increase in bone density. Thus calcium
may enable your bones to benefit from the protein in
your diet to increased bone density. So you need both
calcium and protein for bone, and if your diet has
plenty of both, then your bones are likely to be in
better condition
SOURCE: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
2002;75:609-610, 773-779.
