Young adults who don’t drink milk may get metabolic syndrome

    Washington, Mar 16 - College-age kids who don’t consume at least three servings of dairy daily are three times more likely to develop metabolic syndrome than those who do, a new study has found.

Researchers from the University of Illinois studied 339 Mexican college applicants who filled out a food frequency questionnaire and were then evaluated for metabolic syndrome risk factors.

ÒOnly one in four young persons in the study was getting the recommended amount of dairy,Ó said researcher Margarita Teran-Garcia.

That alarming finding means that three-fourths of the 18- to 25-year-old college applicants surveyed are at risk for metabolic syndrome, she said.

Metabolic syndrome occurs when a person has three of the following risk factors: abdominal obesity, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, and unhealthy cholesterol and lipid levels. Having this disorder greatly increases a person’s chances of developing heart disease and type 2 diabetes, she said.

Although scientists believe that dairy products guard against obesity and the health problems that accompany extra weight, they aren’t sure how it happens.

ÒIt may be the calcium, it may be the proteins. Whatever the mechanism, evidence suggests that dairy products are effective in attaining and maintaining a healthy weight,Ó she said in a study.
The scientists suspected that students were substituting high-calorie sugar-sweetened beverages - for example, soda and juice drinksfor milk, but they found that wasn’t the case.

Instead, a quarter of the group drank these sorts of beverages in addition to dairy products, contributing surplus calories, she said.