The Surprising One Best Drink For Kids

[Trojan]

The Surprising One Best Drink For Kids

If you want your children to be healthy and strong, give them water to drink. Skip juice and milk, both of which can make them fat. A new study from Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard University in Boston warns parents that kids who drink the most milk--especially skim milk--are the fattest.

Reuters reports that the three-year survey of 12,829 children aged 9 to 14 showed that those who drank more milk weighed more than those who drank less milk. "Children who drank the most milk gained more weight, but the added calories appeared responsible," the Harvard team wrote in the journal Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine in which the study findings were published. "Children who drank more than 3 servings a day of milk gained more in BMI than those who drank smaller amounts." BMI is a reference to body mass index, a ratio of height and weight to determine if one is of normal weight.

Surprisingly, the real culprits when it comes to weight gain are skim milk and 1 percent milk. Why? Study leader biostatistician Catherine Berkey suspects that kids are allowed to drink these two more freely than they are whole milk, which is known to have more calories. "The take-home message is that children should not be drinking milk as a means of losing weight or trying to control weight," Berkey said.

So what can you give your kids to drink? Water. "The basic beverage should be water," Dr. Walter Willett, who worked on the study, told Reuters. "We know that in many parts of the world, kids don't drink any milk at all and they end up with healthy bones." He said kids can get needed calcium from green, leafy vegetables, such as broccoli.