Poor bone health in children avoiding bovine secretions (and all other forms of dense calcium)

[Guest guest]

Maybe those people in India developed some cultural " wisdom " in 5000 years of

reflection, though in 5000 years of reflection many Chinese decided to avoid

cows milk. (NOTE: They were in New Zealand, where there is no strong vegetarian

or vegan movement, though in Australia the produce movement is pushing for " 7 a

Day, " not merely " 5 a Day, " as in the USA.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Am J Clin Nutr 2002 Sep;76(3):675-80

 

Children who avoid drinking cow milk have low dietary calcium intakes and poor

bone health.

 

Black RE, Williams SM, Jones IE, Goulding A.

 

Departments of Human Nutrition (REB), Preventive and Social Medicine (SMW), and

Medical and Surgical Sciences (IEJ and AG), University of Otago Medical School,

Dunedin, New Zealand.

 

BACKGROUND: Information concerning the adequacy of bone mineralization in

children who customarily avoid drinking cow milk is sparse. OBJECTIVE: The

objective was to evaluate dietary calcium intakes, anthropometric measures, and

bone health in prepubertal children with a history of long-term milk avoidance.

DESIGN: We recruited 50 milk avoiders (30 girls, 20 boys) aged 3-10 y by

advertisement. We measured current dietary calcium intakes with a food-frequency

questionnaire and body composition and bone mineral density with dual-energy

X-ray absorptiometry and compared the results with those of 200 milk-drinking

control children.

RESULTS: The reasons for milk avoidance were intolerance (40%), bad taste (42%),

and lifestyle choice (18%). Dietary calcium intakes were low (443 +/- 230 mg

Ca/d), and few children consumed substitute calcium-rich drinks or mineral

supplements. Although 9 children (18%) were obese, the milk avoiders were

shorter (P < 0.01), had smaller skeletons (P < 0.01), had a lower total-body

bone mineral content (P < 0.01), and had lower z scores (P < 0.05) for areal

bone mineral density at the femoral neck, hip trochanter, lumbar spine,

ultradistal radius, and 33% radius than did control children of the same age and

sex from the same community. The z scores for volumetric (size-adjusted) bone

mineral density (g/cm(3)) were -0.72 +/- 1.17 for the lumbar spine and -0.72 +/-

1.35 for the 33% radius (P < 0.00l). Twelve children (24%) had previously broken

bones.

CONCLUSIONS: In growing children, long-term avoidance of cow milk is associated

with small stature and poor bone health. This is a major concern that warrants

further study.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[Guest guest]

I note the study said that few children in the non-milk drinking group

consumed substitute calcium rich drinks or mineral supplements. It

seems to me that if they had selected mostly kids who drank a glass or

two of fortified soymilk a day, or even orange juice with extra calcium,

the results would have been very different.

 

 

Maynard S. Clark [MaynardClark]

Thursday, September 05, 2002 8:50 AM

Veg-Rel; Veg-Org

Poor bone health in children avoiding bovine

secretions (and all other forms of dense calcium)

 

 

Maybe those people in India developed some cultural " wisdom " in 5000

years of reflection, though in 5000 years of reflection many Chinese

decided to avoid cows milk. (NOTE: They were in New Zealand, where

there is no strong vegetarian or vegan movement, though in Australia the

produce movement is pushing for " 7 a Day, " not merely " 5 a Day, " as in

the USA.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Am J Clin Nutr 2002 Sep;76(3):675-80

 

Children who avoid drinking cow milk have low dietary calcium intakes

and poor bone health.

 

Black RE, Williams SM, Jones IE, Goulding A.

 

Departments of Human Nutrition (REB), Preventive and Social Medicine

(SMW), and Medical and Surgical Sciences (IEJ and AG), University of

Otago Medical School, Dunedin, New Zealand.

 

BACKGROUND: Information concerning the adequacy of bone mineralization

in children who customarily avoid drinking cow milk is sparse.

OBJECTIVE: The objective was to evaluate dietary calcium intakes,

anthropometric measures, and bone health in prepubertal children with a

history of long-term milk avoidance.

DESIGN: We recruited 50 milk avoiders (30 girls, 20 boys) aged 3-10 y by

advertisement. We measured current dietary calcium intakes with a

food-frequency questionnaire and body composition and bone mineral

density with dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry and compared the results

with those of 200 milk-drinking control children.

RESULTS: The reasons for milk avoidance were intolerance (40%), bad

taste (42%), and lifestyle choice (18%). Dietary calcium intakes were

low (443 +/- 230 mg Ca/d), and few children consumed substitute

calcium-rich drinks or mineral supplements. Although 9 children (18%)

were obese, the milk avoiders were shorter (P < 0.01), had smaller

skeletons (P < 0.01), had a lower total-body bone mineral content (P <

0.01), and had lower z scores (P < 0.05) for areal bone mineral density

at the femoral neck, hip trochanter, lumbar spine, ultradistal radius,

and 33% radius than did control children of the same age and sex from

the same community. The z scores for volumetric (size-adjusted) bone

mineral density (g/cm(3)) were -0.72 +/- 1.17 for the lumbar spine and

-0.72 +/- 1.35 for the 33% radius (P < 0.00l). Twelve children (24%) had

previously broken bones.

CONCLUSIONS: In growing children, long-term avoidance of cow milk is

associated with small stature and poor bone health. This is a major

concern that warrants further study.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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