Don't Have a Cow!

The topic of kids and milk is sacrosanct, so it is with a great deal of trepidation that I am going to make a few claims:

1. Kids don’t need as much calcium as you think. 
2. You can meet your kids’ calcium needs without resorting to milk.
3. Non-milk sources of calcium might actually be healthier for your kids both now and in the long run.

I’m not an advocate of the milk-at-any-cost philosophy.  I feel like it often leads to parental panic—who needs more things to worry about? —when kids don’t drink as much milk as we think they need.  And the steps we take (like pestering/pressuring and sweetening/flavoring) are often counterproductive.  Read The (Chocolate) Millk Mistake and Dealin’ with the Devil.

I say: if your kids don’t drink as much milk as you would like them to…don’t have a cow!

(1) Kids don’t need as much calcium as you think.

Daily calcium needs according to the National Institute of Health:

• 1-3 year olds  = 500 mg
• 4-8 year olds  = 800 mg
• 9-18 year olds  = 1,300 mg
• 19-50 year olds = 1,000 mg

As a point of reference, just one cup (8 ounces) of milk = 300 mg of calcium or…

• 60% of 1-3 year olds’ daily needs
• 38% of 4-8 year olds’ daily needs

Milk is pushed so hard by pediatricians because it’s an easy and efficient source of calcium.

(2) You can meet your kids’ calcium needs without resorting to milk.

Of course, you can give your kids any kind of dairy food and they’ll get calcium: 

• 8 ounces of low fat plain yogurt = 415 mg  (Note: The equivalent in fruit yogurt has less calcium because the container contains less yogurt due to the fruit, or other yogurt-displacing, additives.)
• 1.5 ounces of Cheddar cheese = 306 mg
• ½ cup of vanilla ice cream has 85 mg

But dairy food is just another form of serving up milk.  All plant foods -- fruits, vegetables, grains, beans and nuts -- also have calcium.  

True, plant foods have less calcium per serving, but every bite adds up.  If your children consume the following diet they will take in 624 mg of calcium:

• Breakfast = 1 cup of dry Cheerios = 100 mg
• Lunch = 2 slices of white bread = 62 mg
• Snack = 1 oz of dry roasted almonds = 76 mg
• Dinner = ½ cup of soft tofu = 138 mg, ½ cup of frozen spinach = 146 mg, ½ cup of canned white beans = 102 mg

I know this seems like you have to give your kids a lot of food to fulfill their calcium needs but think of it this way: even if you give your kids milk, you still have to feed them other foods too.  Why not worry less about the milk and focus on providing a variety of foods instead?  It will promote better lifelong habits and the calcium will take care of itself.

(One the other hand, you could just give your child one cup of Total Raisin Bran.  It has 1000 mg of calcium, without the milk.)

Read the USDA report Milk Group and Alternatives.

(3) Non-milk sources of calcium might actually be healthier for your kids in the long run.

Noted nutrition Marion Nestle makes the following points in her excellent book What to Eat:

• Cow’s milk is high in calcium, but it is also high in fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol.   Just as importantly, some components of dairy (such as magnesium, potassium, vitamin D) promote calcium retention, but other components (such as protein, phosphorous and sodium) promote its excretion.  

• Plant foods have smaller doses of calcium but they also have fewer substances that promote calcium loss.

• Healthy bones need a host of nutrients, and calcium balance depends on getting enough of every one of the nutrients involved in building bones.

• In parts of the world where cow’s milk is not a staple of the diet, people often have less osteoporosis and fewer bone fractures than we do; they maintain calcium balance perfectly well on less than half the calcium intake recommended for Americans.

• In America, dairy products are enhanced, sometimes beyond the point of recognition (and health).  Most yogurts targeted to kids are better thought of as desserts.  For instance, 55% of the 80 calories in Go-Gurt, comes from sugar and some of Stonyfield’s fruit yogurts have no fruit in them at all.

Today's American obsession with milk is a byproduct of the dairy industry’s highly successful marketing and lobbying campaign.

According to the milk industry, milk consumption began to decline in the 1960s.  Then they got to work! And...

[W]e have seen enormous change with the industry’s successful image program (the National Milk Mustache “got milk?”Campaign), as well as significant progress in re-tooling our industry to be a competitive player in the world of beverages with expanded distribution, new packaging, flavors and products.

Read the Milk Processor Education Report.

Don't worry so much about milk. Research shows that plant foods are probably the most beneficial foods you can eat, but consuming too much dairy, even in childhood, is worse than not eating enough.

Moo!

~ Changing the conversation from nutrition to habits. ~

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Additional Sources:

Bittman, M., 2009. Food Matters: a Guide to Conscious Eating. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.

Nestle, M., 2006. What to Eat. New York: North Point Press.

Update on August 12, 2010 by Dina Rose

Last night for dinner I prepared stuffed shells, not a dish I normally associate with calcium.  But having just written a post about calcium I now see calcium everywhere! As we sat there eating I realized that I had stuffed the shells with spinach, broccoli, tofu, mozzarella and parmesan - all sources of calcium.  What's more, I had baked the shells with tomato sauce, another small a source of calcium.  A glass of milk the shells were not.  But a decent source of calcium they were!

Dealin' with the Devil

If you give your kids chocolate milk as a way to get them to drink milk, try these techniques instead:

• Flavor the milk with a drop or 2 of vanilla (or orange, raspberry, coconut…) extract.  (It really is delicious).
• Mix a cup of milk with a 4-ounce serving of applesauce for a quick smoothie.
• Vary how much chocolate powder or syrup you mix in so that one day the milk is really chocolaty and the next day… not so much.

Then give your kids some structured guidance.

Tell your kids they can flavor one milk a day, but that each day they have to choose a different flavoring method from the one they choose the day before.

It might not seem like much, but this little bit of variety can totally change the way your kids eat.  Read House Building 101.

Be warned: If you give into your kids' begging (or your fears that they'll stop drinking milk altogether) and give your kids chocolate milk every day, you’ll be making a deal with the devil.

Get your kids hooked on sugar and they’ll eat fewer non-sweetened foods.  Research shows sugar accounts for 20% of total calories consumed by families with young children. That's twice the recommended amount.

You've got to mix up your flavoring techniques.

Anytime you solve a problem with a short-term compromise at the expense of a long-term solution, you’re dealin’ with the devil.

I learned this the hard way years ago when my then 14-month old daughter went through a phase during which she cried relentlessly at bedtime… unless someone stayed in the room with her.  (Never mind that she had been falling asleep solo for most of her life.)

My husband and I gave in, but before we knew what had happened my daughter had started waking herself up throughout the night to check that we were still in her room. What began as a 5-minute exercise had turned into a full-blown hostage situation!

Solving the problem upfront seemed harder, but in the long run it would have been easier.

Chocolate milk is the kind of solution that seems to fix a problem but which causes a bigger problem than it solves: Instead of having a kid who won’t drink milk, you end up with a kid who won’t drink plain milk and who probably won’t eat other foods that aren’t as sweet.

Read The (Chocolate) Milk Mistake and Training Tiny Taste Buds.

Avoid Dealin’ with the Devil …

1) Think BIG.  Instead of thinking about the nutrients you want your kids to consume today, think about the long-term habits you want to foster.

I know you want your kids to drink milk every day, but ask yourself this: Do you want your kids to eat chocolate every day?  Forever?  

And what will happen when your kids outgrow milk?

Instead of worrying about milk consumption, focus on teaching your kids to eat a wide variety of foods -- including greens -- and you'll be setting them up for a lifetime of adequate calcium consumption.

2) Consider the Underlying Lessons.  Every time you feed your kids you are teaching them something about eating.  A daily chocolate milk teaches kids that they can eat any food they want as long as it has desirable nutrients. 

That’s an argument for Pop-Tarts too. 

Did you know that one Vanilla Milkshake flavored Pop-Tart delivers about 20% of a toddler’s calcium needs?  Or that one Whole Grain Strawberry Pop-Tart has 5g of fiber (26% of your toddler’s needs)?  Read more about calcium and fiber requirements.  Pop-Tarts also have Vitamin A, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Niacin...You can't say that about milk!

Of course Pop-Tarts are basically blocks of sugary, enriched flour and you would never give them to you kids for the nutrients because doing that would teach your kids the wrong habits. 

3) Remember to mix-it up.   We all know that the only way for people to get the full range of nutrients they need is to eat a variety of foods.  But there’s an even more important reason for kids to eat a variety of foods: Research has shown that food preferences develop by early exposure to a wide range of flavors. 

If you want your kids to eat a variety of foods when they’re grown, you have to expose them to a variety of foods when they’re young.  But variety doesn’t have to mean new. You just have to deliberately cycle through the range of foods your kids already eat.  Read Why We Don’t Eat More Fruits and Veggies.

~ Changing the conversation from nutrition to habits. ~

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Source:

Byrd-Bredbenner, C., J. M. Abbot, and E. Cussler. 2009. “Nutrient Profile of Household Food Supplies of Families With Young Children.” Journal of the American Dietetic Association 109 (12): 2057-62.

The (Chocolate) Milk Mistake

If you give your kids chocolate milk to get them to drink milk you would be better off giving them a glass of plain milk and a Dunkin' Donuts Chocolate Frosted Donut.

The total sugar intake would be slightly lower (although a few grams more or less hardly makes a difference).

• One cup of lowfat chocolate milk has around 28g of sugar (depending upon the brand).
• One glass of plain, lowfat milk has 12g of sugar.  Add a Dunkin Donuts Chocolate Frosted Donut (13g) for a total of 25g. 

 More importantly, the milk and donut option will teach your kids 2 important lessons:

1. What real milk tastes like.
2. That the sweet part -- the donut -- is a treat.

In contrast, chocolate milk teaches kids that: 

1. Plain stuff isn't tasty, but chocolate certainly is.
2. Somehow, mixing milk with chocolate negates the chocolate, rendering the whole drink healthy. 

Chocolate milk should be an occasional treat, not a daily (or even weekly) staple.

I know what you’re saying: Some of the sugar in chocolate milk comes from the milk itself.

But that just drives home the point that milk is already sweet.  Why sweeten it even more?

And: You're worried about your children’s calcium intake.

There’s really no need to worry.   Kids 1-3 only need about 500mg of calcium per day.  That can be fulfilled in lots of ways:

• 2 cups of milk
• a cup of milk and some cheddar cheese
• 1 cup of milk and 1 container of YoBaby Organic Whole Milk Yogurt.  (Want to sweeten the yogurt up? Read The Magic of Yogurt for ideas.)

There is also calcium in spinach, tofu, salmon, pudding, ice cream and a myriad of fortified cereals and juices. Read the National Institute of Health’s Calcium Fact Sheet.

Ironically, giving your kids chocolate milk on a regular basis because you're worried about their calcium intake will ultimately reduce their calcium intake. Training tiny taste buds to prefer sweet foods reduces the range of foods your kids will eat, thereby reducing the sources of calcium (other than chocolate milk) that they consume.

Just how sweet is chocolate milk?  Compared to the 28g of sugar in one cup of chocolate milk…

• One Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Bar = 24g of sugar.
• One serving of Cocoa Krispies has 12g of sugar.
• 2 Entenmann’s Softees Powdered Donuts = 26g of sugar.
• One Dairy Queen Child’s Chocolate Cone = 17g of sugar.
• One Dairy Queen Child’s Chocolate Cone with Rainbow Sprinkles = 22g of sugar.
• One Dairy Queen Child’s Chocolate Cone with Oreo Pieces = 28g of sugar.
• An apple fritter at Starbucks = 27g of sugar.
• One 12-ounce can of 7UP = 25g of sugar. 
• 6 Oreo Cookies = 28g of sugar.
• 1 large Pepperidge Farm Soft Baked Chocolate Chunk Dark Chocolate Brownie = 13g of sugar. 

Of course, if you give your children the 16-ounce bottle of Nesquik chocolate milk (58g of sugar) -- which your tot will probably drain since research shows that the container size determines consumption-- you might as well give your kids a McDonald's Hot Caramel Sundae: it has only 44g of sugar.

The fallacy of using the nutrition model to feed kids is that it encourages something I call Selective Attention and the Feel Better Approach: we focus on the dimension of food that makes us feel better (in this case the calcium) and overlook the dimension we would rather ignore (the sugar).

Unfortunately, good eating habits can't be shaped that way because it's the desirable, not the nutritious, aspect of food which shapes how our kids really eat.

Chocolate begets more chocolate; it never leads to carrots. Or spinach. Or tofu -- unless it's Tofutti Chocolate Supreme (with 8g of sugar per 1/2 cup).

~ Changing the conversation from nutrition to habits. ~

For more on chocolate milk read Chocolate Milk vs. Chocolate Bars: The 10 Most "Dangerous" Foods.

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All websites accessed 7/27/10