Beach & Singh 1

Group 18 Media Assignment

Jordan Beach & Sean Singh

My assigned life stage for the assignment is: Young Children

The media article I selected for this assignment is:

Link:

https://www.news-medical.net/news/20200102/Reduced-fat-milk-may-increase-the-risk-o

f-obesity-in-children.aspx

Headline: “Reduced-fat milk may increase the risk of obesity in children”

Source of Publication: News Medical

Publication Date: January 2, 2020

The original research study described in the mainstream media article is:

PubMed Link: https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/111/2/266/5680464?login=true

Title: “Whole milk compared with reduced-fat milk and childhood overweight: a

systematic review and meta-analysis”

Authors: Shelley M. Canderhout, Mary Aglipay, Nazi Torabi, Peter Jüni, Bruno R. da

Costa, Catherine S. Birken, Deborah L O’Connor, Kevin E. Thorpe, Jonathon L. Maguire

Journal name: The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition

Publication Year: December 18, 2019

Reference: Shelley M Vanderhout, Mary Aglipay, Nazi Torabi, Peter Jüni, Bruno R da

Costa, Catherine S Birken, Deborah L O'Connor, Kevin E Thorpe, Jonathon L Maguire,

Whole milk compared with reduced-fat milk and childhood overweight: a systematic

review and meta-analysis, The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Volume 111, Issue

2, February 2020, Pages 266–279, https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/nqz276

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Research study and its findings:

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between cow-milk fat consumption

and obesity in children aged 1-18 years old. In the Introduction of the study, it is stated that

childhood obesity has tripled in the past 40 years, and “over the same period, consumption of

whole-fat cow-milk has halved.” It is also noted that the American Academy of Pediatrics and

the Canadian Paediatric Society recommend that children make the switch from drinking

whole-fat cow-milk (3.25%) to reduced-fat cow-milk (0.1-2%) at the age of 2 years old in order

to limit fat intake. The study is a meta-analysis and rather than conducting an experiment the

authors compiled many different studies, compared the results, and drew conclusions from them.

The methods used to “systematically review and meta-analyze” the relation between whole-fat

relative to reduced-fat cow-milk and adiposity in children included analyzing previous studies

that utilize cross-sectional, cohort, case-control, and longitudinal studies, as well as intervention

trials, both controlled and not controlled. In these studies, there were no restrictions on the date

or length of follow-up. The population of the studies included at least 10 healthy children

between the ages of 1-18 years old, coming out to a total of 20,897 children. Undernourished or

disease populations were not considered. The researchers used cow-milk fat as the primary

exposure. They categorized the different types of milk by fat content: skim (0.1% fat), 1% fat,

2% fat, and whole or homogenized (3.25% fat). Researchers measured the outcome of childhood

adiposity in various ways, including BMI z-score (zBMI), BMI, weight for age, body fat mass,

lean body mass, waist circumference, waist-to-hip ratio, body fat percentage, skinfold thickness,

and prevalence of overweight or obesity. The meta-analysis of this study included reported

numbers of children who consumed (3.25%), 2%, 1% or skim (0.1%) milk on a regular basis, as

well as the numbers of those children who are also obese or overweight. Overall, the systematic
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review and meta-analysis determined that “relative to reduced-fat cow-milk, whole-fat cow-milk

consumption was associated with lower odds of childhood overweight or obesity.”

Critical evaluation of research article and comparison with the related mainstream article:

1. Outside Factors: According to the systematic review, only 11 of 28 studies took the

volume of milk consumption into account. It is not known if the increased risk of obesity

was due to an unregulated consumption of milk and one group drinking more than the

other, so it would be hard to compare the two forms of milk if they were not served in

equal volumes. For the studies that had reported the milk volume, there may have been

measurement errors from recall bias or not using a proper dietary tracking tool such as a

mobile application.

2. Overgeneralized Claim: One of the first claims made in the article is that “children who

drink whole milk have a 40-percent reduced risk of being overweight or obese compared

to those who drink reduced-fat milk.” In reality, only 18 of the 28 studies involved show

that to be true, while 10 of the 28 studies found no connection between consuming

full-fat milk and a lesser likelihood of adiposity. The meta-analysis does not make this

40% claim in a conclusive and definite manner but instead draws its conclusion from the

overall association of all the studies analyzed.

3. Results: The article only discusses the effects of reduced-fat milk compared to whole

milk. The meta-analysis it references explains that due to the higher fat content in whole

milk, it can leave a person more full because of the fat signaling release of CCK. The

study theorizes that reduced-fat milk won’t leave a person as full, so they will be more

likely to consume higher fat foods and sugar-sweetened beverages to compensate. Whole

milk may increase a person’s satiety and reduce the risk for obesity, but this does not
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necessarily mean reduced-fat milk is increasing the risk as to the news article claims in its

headline.

4. Correlation, Not Causation: The author of the mainstream media article seems to be

stretching the results of the study. The author claims that while further randomized trials

are needed to prove this for certain, there is a causation between consuming reduced-fat

cow-milk and child obesity. The meta-analysis just drew correlations between different

studies and actually determined that rather than a causation, when compared to

whole-milk or other fattier types of milk, reduced-fat milk does not do much of a better

job at reducing the risk of child obesity.

Four other mainstream media articles that discuss the same research study:

1. “Whole Milk and Childhood Weight - Is There A Concern?”

https://bcdairy.ca/milk/articles/whole-milk-and-childhood-obesityis-there-a-concern

2. “Study: Children who drank whole milk had lower risk of being overweight or obese”

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-12/smh-scw123019.php

3. “Whole milk consumption tied to lower likelihood of childhood obesity, says study”

https://www.foodnavigator-usa.com/Article/2020/01/02/Whole-milk-consumption-tied-to

-lower-likelihood-of-childhood-obesity-says-study#

4. “Children who drank whole milk had lower risk of being overweight or obese”

https://neurosciencenews.com/milk-obesity-children-15358/