New Study Finds Kids Who Drink Milk Alternatives Are Shorter Than Those Who Drink Milk

A new study found children who drank more milk alternatives were shorter than those who drank cow’s milk.

Researchers at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto compared more 5,000 Canadian children, tracking how much non-cow’s milk they consumed and their height.

They found for every cup of non-cow’s milk consumed daily, children were 0.4 cm (about 0.16 inch) shorter.

Dr. Jonathon Maguire, one of the study’s authors, said milk alternatives have varying levels of protein, vitamin D calcium, the nutrients in milk that help kids grow.

“The nutrient content of cow’s milk is standardized across the brands and it’s legislated to be that way, both in the United States and Canada. But in terms of non-cow’s milk, there’s much less legislation, much less standardization, so they vary considerably even brand to brand in the same product,” Maguire said.

But some nutrition specialists say the relationship between height and milk consumption probably isn’t that simple.

“It’s an association. It doesn’t show cause and effect. So it’s hard to know what the children who may not have been drinking cow’s milk, what else was going on in their diet,” said Beth Olson, associate professor of nutrition at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “They also didn’t distinguish between the types of non-cow’s milk and those sources can be quite different.”

Olson said soy milk is the closest alternative to milk’s protein content. But she said kids who drink other types of alternatives can consume the same amount of nutrients in other areas of their diet.