Whole milk is better for kids than skimmed milk. So why does the United States insist on providing skimmed milk to children in schools?<\/p>\n
Here’s<\/a> a great article I found on Quora on the subject:<\/p>\n TLDR: Big sugar is to blame.<\/p>\n My own note: a “low fat” diet is, by definition, a “high sugar, high protein” diet.<\/p>\n ———————————<\/p>\n Evidence is emerging that in fact yes, it is largely due to dietary changes.<\/p>\n Prior to circa 1970 most people, including children, drank whole milk. I should state that in two parts: (1) most people drank milk, and (2) the milk was very largely whole milk. But then a huge shift in consumer habits came about in relation to milk consumption, and this was due to the enormous influence of a 1967 report from Harvard, which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The report looked at certain carefully selected studies, and ignored other studies that gave contrary evidence. The report\u2019s conclusions were simple: Cardiovascular Disease was mainly caused by eating animal fats, and sugar had no causal link with Cardiovascular Disease.<\/p>\n The three Harvard researchers had been paid $5,000 by the Sugar Research Foundation to produce that report. And the people who paid for the report also were able to read it prior to its publication, to ensure that its conclusions were what they wanted them to be. These three researchers were working in a department of the Harvard Medical School. In the mid 1960\u2019s these same researchers and their colleagues needed a new building in which to work at Harvard. The makers of Cheerios, the company called General Mills (who are BIG users of sugar) donated one million dollars to Harvard for that department to be based in. If this seems shocking, it is. Have a look at this article in the New York Times to get a fuller understanding of that episode.<\/p>\n How the Sugar Industry Shifted Blame to Fat<\/a><\/p>\n Please do click the link above, and take the time to read that article.<\/p>\n Now, how does this relate to milk, and childhood obesity? The New England Journal of Medicine was the most authoritative journal of its kind in the world, and the report was from researchers at Harvard, so it had HUGE influence. By that I mean within several years the report had laid the basis for government policies in the USA, in Canada, the UK and most of western Europe. The official nutritional advice from all these governments was simple: avoid animal fats. If you want to be healthy, don\u2019t just eat lean beef, or fish, or chicken. You should also switch from butter to margarine (BIG mistake..!!). And stop drinking whole milk, and instead have skimmed milk. And if you don\u2019t like the taste of skimmed milk, then at the very least drink semi-skimmed milk. PLEASE AVOID that dangerous WHOLE milk..!! But don\u2019t worry about carbohydrates and sugar, those are fine for you.<\/p>\n Have you ever read Charlotte\u2019s Web, by E.B. White? In that story, a common farming practise is mentioned a few times, which is to give skimmed milk to pigs. In the UK and the USA this has been done for over a century. Why? Because a farmer knows that skimmed milk leaves the pig hungry, and so the pig will gobble up its food more readily, and thereby put on weight more quickly than would otherwise be the case.<\/p>\n Not sure if this is a reasonable answer yet? Then here is the evidence.<\/p>\n A new study has just recently been published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. It is a \u201csystematic review and meta-analysis led by St. Michael\u2019s Hospital of Unity Health Toronto.\u201d It found children who drank whole milk had 40% lower odds of being overweight or obese compared with children who consumed reduced-fat milk.<\/p>\n They analysed 28 studies from seven countries that explored the relationship between children drinking cow’s milk and the risk of being overweight or obese. The studies involved a total almost 21,000 children between the ages of one and 18 years old.<\/p>\n Whole milk compared with reduced-fat milk and childhood overweight: a systematic review and meta-analysis<\/a><\/p>\n and<\/p>\n