Girls drinking more sodas and less milk

According to researchers in the U.S. concerns that teens are drinking too many sodas and fruit drinks are well founded.

A study in which food diaries kept by girls over a ten year period were examined, have shown that milk consumption decreased by over 25% during the course of the study, while soda intake, on average, nearly tripled, becoming the number one beverage consumed by older girls.

There was also an increase in the consumption of fruit drinks among black girls.

Ruth Striegel-Moore, Ph.D., and colleagues from several institutions studied three-day food diaries kept by 2,371 girls who participated in the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Growth Health Study.

The study examined the trend among both black and white girls over a ten year period.

The girls provided the food diaries during annual visits between the ages of nine or ten through to age 19.

The authors point out that sodas lack nutritional value and are replacing beverages such as milk, which is an important source of the calcium needed for good bone health.

It was also found that the girls who consumed the most soda tended to be heavier than girls with lower soda intake.

The authors suggest that public health efforts are needed to encourage adolescents to choose healthier beverages to help avoid calcium deficiencies and weight gain.

In an accompanying editorial, Dr. William Dietz supports this suggestion and adds that milk provides an important source of calcium in the diets of children and adolescents, and says the decline in girls' milk consumption at a time when bone mineral deposition may predispose to eventual osteoporosis is a major concern.

The study is published in the February issue of The Journal of Pediatrics.