Does milk make children grow? relationships between milk consumption and height in NHANES 1999-2002

Abstract

In the United States, milk (usually cow's milk) is widely considered an "essential food" to support bone growth among post-weaning age children, as evident in government-sponsored nutrition policies that mandate milk for children. Milk contains calories, protein, and calcium, among other nutrients, and bioactive components such as insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I), all of which may facilitate bone growth. There is a large literature on milk and/or calcium intake and its effects on bone density, but one aspect of bone mass--height--is not well studied in relation to milk consumption. Limited experimental studies show no consistent relationship across populations. To investigate this linkage among American children, analysis of the NHANES 1999-2002 was undertaken. NHANES data allow two hypotheses to be tested: (1) reported frequency of childhood milk consumption will be positively related to adult height and (2) height of children 5-18 years will be predicted by the reported frequency of milk consumption and/or milk intake from a 24-h dietary recall. Results indicate that adult height was positively associated with milk consumption at ages 5-12 and 13-17, after controlling for sex, education, and ethnicity. Among contemporary children, milk consumption had no effect on the height of 5-11 year olds after controlling for age, birthweight, energy intake, and ethnicity. In contrast, milk consumption frequency and milk intake (measured as grams of milk, or protein or calcium from milk) were significant predictors of the height of 12-18 year olds, along with age, sex, household income, and ethnicity. The greatest ethnic contrasts were between Mexican Americans and non-Hispanic whites and blacks, and milk variables remained significant predictors of height in these comparisons. Thus NHANES data show substantial variability in the effects of milk consumption on height.

Adult height, nutrition, and population health

“…81 Similarly, milk consumption was positively associated with adult height among a nationally representative sample from the United States. 82 In particular, increased consumption of cow's milk is associated with linear growth, 83 although there may be something specific to milk itself besides milk protein. One trial in India showed that children born within a community-based intervention offering nutrition supplementation during pregnancy and early childhood were 14 mm taller than the control group and had a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease upon reaching adolescence.…”

A bioarchaeological study of mid-Holocene communities in the Eastern Cape, South Africa: the interface between foraging and pastoralism

“…Research that has studied the influence of milk on growth potential suggests that milk supplementation has the most impact on the growth of undernourished children (Wiley 2005 As reviewed in Chapter 2, the distribution of radiocarbon dates from sites with domestic stock supports Elphick's (1977) proposal concerning the southward movement of sheep from the Zambezi region to the Cape. However, …”

Dairy intake associates with the IGF rs680 polymorphism to height variation in periadolescent children

“…More precisely, a positive correlation was found between the dairy intake and height in those children who were A-allele carriers for the IGF2 polymorphism. Results from the NHANES study (Wiley, 2005) indicated that adult height was positively associated with milk consumption at ages 5-12 and 13-17 years, after controlling for sex, education and ethnicity. The strongest evidence that milk and dairy product intake stimulate linear growth comes from observational and intervention studies in developing countries that show considerable effects.…”