Milk your way to healthier benefits

With news of obese, unhealthy children hitting the headlines on an almost daily basis, how do parents inspire their kids to choose healthier foods? The recent cinema release of The Calcium Kid is encouraging kids to do just that with the lead being a milkman who becomes a heavy weight champion due to his consumption of three pints of milk a day.

With the British Dietetic Association recently expressing its concern that children are swapping the milk in their diet with soft drinks, Cravendale Fresh Milk has teamed up with leading dietician Lyndel Costain to look at the effects of milk consumption on bone health and ways to encourage children to drink more of it.

Lyndel comments: "Along with other essential nutrients, calcium is a vital part of a child's healthy diet and parents should try to ensure that they are getting enough. A wide range of studies link a healthy calcium intake with a good 'peak bone mass' and stronger bones throughout life.

"This is reinforced by studies linking poor milk intakes to less healthy bones. For example, a recent study of children aged 3 to 10 years who had long avoided milk, found they generally had lower calcium intakes, were shorter and their bones were less strong than milk-drinking children"

Stuart Ibberson, Cravendale brand manager said: "With the hot weather coming up it's a great time to stock up on Cravendale Fresh Milk for aspiring Calcium Kids keeping them cool and healthy. If drinking milk straight doesn't appeal to your child you can disguise it by using it to make a delicious fruit milkshake or summer smoothie."

Milk is the easiest and most popular source of calcium and unlike The Calcium Kid, children need only drink around three glasses of milk a day to provide calcium and many other nutrients that help keep bones strong and healthy.