An Otago Medical School study highlights the risks facing children with inadequate calcium.
One of the study authors, Professor Ailsa Goulding, said a trend towards replacing cows' milk with soft drinks could have contributed to the high obesity rate shown.
Professor Goulding, with other university researchers Ruth Black, Ianthe Jones and Sheila
Williams, showed that children who chronically avoided drinking milk were more likely to be obese and shorter, and to suffer broken bones.
The research focused on 50 Dunedin children aged between three and 10, who had a history of not drinking milk, and who also ate few other dairy foods.
The children had poor bone-mineral density and 24 per cent had suffered broken bones - well above average for their age group.
Their obesity rate was more than three times higher than average. Low calcium intake also increased osteoporosis risk in later life.
Some children were refraining from milk because of allergies, but half gave no health-related reasons. Some said they did not enjoy the taste, Professor Goulding said.
Parents whose children were drinking soy milk because of cow milk allergies should check to ensure the particular product was adequately fortified with calcium.
University food science lecturer David Everett, a specialist in dairy food research, said the study results were frightening.
It was doubtful that reintroducing the previous school milk scheme would prove effective, because some children did not enjoy drinking milk.
Health Minister Annette King said she would need to see the results of a planned Ministry of Health study on children's eating habits before any state-funded milk scheme could be justified.
- NZPA
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