Advantages And Disadvantages Of Drinking Milk

Milk has always been proclaimed as the best way to keep one’s bones strong and healthy. This is because milk contains large amount of calcium, which support bone health. It is because of this that three glasses of milk per daily is recommended to meet the daily calcium requirements. However, according to an article on WebMD, it’s more than that. This article, “6 Reasons to get your Dairy” by Elaine Magee explains why people should drink milk. One of her reasons is that calcium from milk is actually better for bone development than if one were to take a calcium supplement instead. Her evidence behind this claim was a study in Finland which measured changes in bone density and thickness when their (girls involved in the experiment) diets were

In this study rats were fed either nonfat dry milk solids (NFDM) or calcium carbonate (most common source of calcium in calcium-fortified foods and supplements) during their rapid growth period. Researchers found that the bones in the rats that were fed nonfat dry milk solids had a 8.4% higher breaking force and a 6.4% greater calcium concentration than the rats that had been fed calcium carbonate during bone growth. Overall, they declared that “NFDMs improved bone measures during growth and protected bone against a subsequent period of calcium depletion compared with CaCO3” (Weaver, 2009). I believe the most important thing to take along with this is not only does milk cause bones to have a higher concentration of calcium, but it also helps them retain that calcium better than supplements

First of all this research experiment is lead by Connie Weaver, a distinguished professor with a PhD in nutrition and a multitude of accolades to her name (Purdue.edu). The researchers make sure to control a lot of variables, as to make sure that only the rat’s diet is creating changes in bone development. On top of this, the study is step up in such a way that helps ensure the credibility of its results. On other hand though, after looking over this experiment it does have a few flaws that weaken its credibility. First of all, this study was funded by the National Dairy Council, this means that this study could be bias towards milk being the better product. Also, this study, much like the study in Finland, doesn’t have a ton of test subjects that it is gathering data from. Lastly, while less credible than the study in Finland this article still supports Magee’s argument that milk is better for bones than supplements