The role of milk in Swedish pre-school children's diet

Objective: A pre-school-based dietary survey was carried out in Sweden in the Stockholm area. The aim was to study the role of milk in pre-school children's diet, especially the effect of milk versus water as lunch beverage at pre-school. Design: Food and nutrient intake were quantified using seven day-records in order to compare two serving systems at pre-schools, one offering milk as lunch beverage, the other water and to analyse the quality of the diet of low and high consumers of milk. Results: No significant differences between the children's food, nutrient or energy intake were attributable to the serving system at the pre-school. The low milk consumers had a more even distribution of energy intake from different food groups than did the high milk consumers. Conclusions: This comparative study has provided no evidence to support the selection of water versus milk as a preferable lunch beverage in terms of pre-school children's total milk consumption and general dietary quality. The dietary analyses showed that there might be a reason to limit pre-school children's daily milk and fermented milk intake to half a litre if the refined sugar level is limited. Key words: Children, energy, milk, nutrient, pre-school, water