Drinking whole cow-milk appears to be associated with lower childhood adiposity in children. Results of a new meta-analysis of observational studies was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
The problem is that children aged > 2 y are recommended to consume reduced-fat milk to lower the risk of obesity.
For meta-analysis 14 reports from different sources (MEDLINE, Scopus, Cochrane Library etc.) with 20,897 combined participants were used.
It was revealed the odds of being overweight or having obesity to be 39% lower in children who drank whole milk, compared with those who drank low-fat milk: the odds ratio of overweight or obesity was 0.61 (P < .0001).
The authors suggest that whole cow-milk appears to be associated with reduced likelihood of obesity in children. Further trials are needed to confirm these results because criticism of the findings posits that authors paid inadequate attention to important confounding factors, for example daily caloric intake.