The amount of fatty tissue that young children gain as they grow has little to do with their calcium intake, a new study shows.

There is some evidence linking adequate calcium consumption to lower body fat percentage. But based on her study, Dr. Bonny L. Specker of South Dakota State University in Brookings, said, rather than giving kids calcium supplements, “you’re going to want to get them out playing and running around to prevent obesity.”

To investigate whether calcium intake might affect body fat in children, Specker and colleagues analyzed results from a one-year trial of calcium supplementation in 178 children aged 3 to 5 years.

There was no relationship betweem calcium intake and fat mass gain, except among the children who were consuming the lowest levels of calcium. For these children, there was a weak relationship, with children receiving calcium supplements gaining 0.3 kilograms in fat mass compared to 0.8 for those who weren’t taking the supplements.

Among children with very low calcium intake, Specker noted, issues of bone health are more of a concern than body fat levels.

In general, she added, children in this age group get plenty of calcium. For children aged 1 to 3 years, she said, 500 milligrams of the mineral are recommended daily, while the requirement rises to 800 milligrams a day for kids 4 to 8 years old. In the current study, daily calcium intake averaged 900 mg.

She and her colleagues say their study “suggests that if calcium intake is important, it is a weak relation that exists only among children with low dietary intakes. If children consume the recommended dietary intakes of calcium to optimize bone health, additional calcium is not likely to prevent fat mass accumulation.”

SOURCE: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, November 2006.