Is Drinking Milk a Good Way to Build Strong Bones?

Pro (Yes): You can help children achieve lifelong bone health by talking to parents and young people about the importance of calcium consumption, especially during ages 11 to 15, a time of critical bone growth. Children and teenagers can get most of the their daily calcium from 3 cups of low-fat or fat-free milk. Although calcium is found in a variety of foods, the 1994 National Institutes of Health (NIH) Consensus Statement on Optimal Calcium Intake designated dairy products as the preferred source of calcium because of their high calcium content. The 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans also recommends milk and milk products as sources of dietary calcium based on studies that show a positive relationship between intake of milk and milk products and bone mineral content or bone mineral density in one or more skeletal sites. Low-fat or fat-free milk is the best source of calcium because it has high calcium content without added fat, and because the calcium is easily absorbed by the body.

Milk is a great way to build strong bones because it has protein that can help gain muscle and strong bones.

Con (No): There is much debate over whether long-term consumption of dairy products helps bones at all. A good deal of evidence suggests that it does not. Several studies of teenagers have found that their adult bone health is related to their physical activity level earlier in life, but not to the amount of milk or calcium they consumed. Milk consumption is apparently no help later in life either. In a 12-year Harvard study(1.49 MB) of 78,000 women, those who got the most calcium from dairy products received no benefit and actually broke more bones than the women who got little or no calcium from dairy. Similarly, a 1994 study of elderly men and women in Sydney, Australia, showed that those who consumed the most dairy products had double the hip fracture rate of those who consumed the least. These findings indicate that despite the amount of calcium in dairy products, other dairy compounds accelerate calcium loss. Animal proteins and salt are two likely suspects.