This “healthy” beverage is loaded with sugar — it’s bad for kids, and just as bad for adults

Fat chance

When a weight loss supplement claims to help you drop a few pounds without dieting, the Federal Trade Commission goes into high gear.

But if they really want to protect consumers and shut down false advertising, they should arrest whomever came up with: “Milk: It does a body good.”

Because nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, if you drink reduced-fat milk every day, it will promote obesity…and worse.

Easy math

I’ve been making this argument for a while now. And finally, a member of the mainstream is taking up the cause. Dr. David Ludwig is a Harvard professor of pediatrics with a specialty in childhood obesity. But his message is just as important for adults (and not just because they’re the ones filling the bottles).

It’s as simple as basic math. The sugar content of reduced fat milk is much too high.

How high? Get ready: A Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup contains less sugar than one cup of 2-percent milk.

And yet, the USDA and the American Academy of Pediatrics say we should drink three cups per day. It’s absurd!

Drinking that much milk would be as bad as drinking that much Mountain Dew.

Here’s why… The skimming process strips away fat, which helps slow the absorption of sugar. And that process strips away nutrients too. So the nutrition is scant, but the sugar level stays high — and the sugar courses through your body much faster.

This isn’t news. The only news here is that a prominent mainstream specialist is willing to say it in a major pediatric journal.

Dr. Ludwig is also a researcher. And his own research concludes exactly the OPPOSITE of what the mainstream has been spouting for years. This is an important message to parents of young kids. But it might be even more important to adults.

Despite the mustaches and grinning celebs, drinking sugary low fat milk every day promotes obesity and type 2 diabetes.

Nothing good about that.

Sources:
“Three Daily Servings of Reduced-Fat Milk: An Evidence-Based Recommendation?” JAMA Pediatrics, Published online ahead of print, 7/1/13, archpedi.jamanetwork.com