Zee Media Bureau
New Delhi: As per a new study, feeding your children whole-fat milk may help in making them leaner.
Children who have a habit of consuming whole-fat milk have higher vitamin D levels than those who consume low-fat or skimmed milk.
Children who drank whole milk - with 3.25 per cent fat content - had a Body Mass Index (BMI) score that was 0.72 units lower than those who drank one or two per cent milk.
That is comparable to the difference between having a healthy weight and being overweight, said lead author Jonathon Maguire, pediatrician at St Michael's Hospital in Canada.
He hypothesised that children who drank whole milk felt fuller than those who drank the same amount of low-fat or skim milk.
If children do not feel full from drinking milk, they are more likely to eat other foods that are less healthy or higher in calories, he said.
Therefore, children who drink lower fat milk may actually consume more calories overall than those who drink whole milk.
The study also found that children who drank one cup of whole milk each day had comparable vitamin D levels to those who drank nearly three cups of one per cent milk.
This could be because vitamin D is fat soluble, meaning it dissolves in fat rather than water. Milk with higher fat content therefore has more vitamin D.
There may also be an inverse relationship in children between body fat and vitamin D stores, as children's body fat increases, their vitamin D stores decrease, according to the study.
(With PTI inputs)
