Children and teenagers who drink the most milk gain the most weight, according to a new report. However, these children also tend to consume more overall calories.

A long-term study of close to 13,000 children between the ages of 9 and 14 found that those who had more than three servings of milk every day gained more weight than those who drank fewer daily servings of milk.

“Children should not be drinking milk as a means of losing weight or trying to control weight,” according to study author Dr. Catherine S. Berkey, of Harvard Medical School in Boston.

“Greater milk consumption than is recommended for their age may contribute to extra pounds, especially for adolescents whose physical activity levels are low,” she added.

In recent years, conflicting evidence has been presented on the relationship between dairy products and weight. Some researchers have found that the consumption of dairy products may help promote weight loss while others have reported that it leads to weight gain.

A recent study found that women who consumed the most dairy - equivalent to up to four glasses of milk a day - over the course of one year were no more likely to gain or lose weight than those who consumed the equivalent of no more than one glass of milk each day.

Other studies have found no association between body fat and dairy foods. However, few long-term studies have been conducted among adolescents.

Berkey and her team followed 12,829 adolescents who completed annual questionnaires from 1996 to 1999, reporting their height, weight, and their frequency of eating various food items during the previous year.

They found that boys who reported drinking more than three servings of milk each day were 35 percent more likely to become overweight than boys who drank between one and two servings each day, the researchers report in this month’s issue of Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

Similarly, girls who drank three glasses of milk daily were 36 percent more likely to become overweight than girls who consumed up to two servings of milk each day, the report indicates.

However, these associations were diminished when the data were adjusted to account of total calorie intake, which was the most important predictor of weight gain.

One surprising finding, according to Berkey, was that the children’s consumption of dairy fat was not associated with weight gain. “Dietary fat may also promote satiety, resulting in lower total caloric intake,” she speculated.

In fact, boys who drank more daily servings of 1-percent milk and girls who drank more daily servings of skim milk gained more weight than those who drank fewer servings of 1-percent or skim milk each day. Those who consumed more total dietary calcium also gained more weight than did their peers, the report indicates.

The findings suggest that milk may not be the weight loss aid that some may perceive it to be. “We believe that adolescents who need to lose or control their weight should, after meeting recommendations for dairy foods in their diets, replace extra servings of milk, and all servings of sugar-added beverages, with water, and increase physical activity as well,” Berkey concluded.

SOURCE: Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, June 2005.