Children grow leaner and stronger when fed whole milk instead of part-skim milk. This is according to Canadian research published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Researchers evaluated the conditions of 2,700 children in relation to the type of milk consumed in the first years of life in order to test the effects of the amount of fat consumed with milk on body mass index and vitamin D concentration.
The result belies the line taken by the U.K. Food Standards Agency, which since 2009 has been urging people to choose skim milk from the age of two to prevent childhood obesity. In fact, the study found children fed whole milk had a lower body mass index (by 0.72 points) than peers raised on semi-skimmed milk and a higher level of vitamin D, which protects bones and the immune system.
According to the researchers, this result can be justified by the nutritional value of whole milk: increasing satiety reduces the reliance on high-calorie snacks. And it is precisely the greater amount of fat part that characterizes it that would promote the assimilation of vitamin D, which being fat-soluble is carried by fat and not water.
