Dairy products filled with sweeteners are harmful to your health, according to Harvard pediatrician.
"Americans are consuming billions of gallons of milk a year, presumably under the assumption that their bones would crumble without them," Dr. David Ludwig wrote in an article published in the medical journal JAMA Pediatrics.
According to the Daily Mail, Ludwig is against the United States government recommendation of three glasses of milk, specifically low-fat chocolate milk.
"The worst possible situation is reduced-fat chocolate milk: you take out the fat, it's less tasty," Ludwig wrote in the article. "So to get kids to drink 3 cups a day, you get this sugar-sweetened beverage."
One cup of low-fat chocolate milk has 158 calories, of which 64 come from solid fats and added sugars, according to the United States Department of Agriculture. A cup of unsweetened, low-fat 1 percent milk has 102 calories, and 18 of those calories are from solid fats.
Ludwig, who I the director of the New Balance Foundation Obesity Prevention Center at Boston Children's Hospital, said people should have a well-balanced diet and cut back on their consumption of milk, but not to stop drinking all together.
"On a gram for gram basis, cooked kale has more calcium than milk. Sardines, nuts, seeds, beans, green leafy vegetables are all sources of calcium," wrote Ludwig. "For a child or an adult - but especially a child - eating a poor quality diet, three cups a day of milk may be the most helpful thing."
Greens like kale and spinach may not be favorable to some kids, but contain higher amounts of calcium than a glass of milk. Kale reportedly has 94 milligrams of the nutrient and a cup of cooked spinach has 245 milligrams, according to the USDA.
For more information about the consumption of milk and its nutritional value, click here.
