The case for whole milk is adding up

Late last year, the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition published a study that seemed to contradict received dietary wisdom on children and full fat milk. The Canadian study found that among the 2745 children in the study, whole milk consumption was associated with lower BMI – possibly because those drinking full-fat milk were less hungry and thus less likely to snack on high calorie foods. Whole milk drinkers also had higher vitamin D levels.

The findings grabbed headlines worldwide. “Do we have it backward'” asked Canada’s CBC News; the Australian reported that “Low fat milk raises obesity risk, parents told” while the UK’s Sun newspaper used capitals to express its surprise: “Children who drink full fat milk are LESS likely to grow up to be fat”.

The news also crossed the Atlantic to a tiny island of the west coast of Scotland. The Isle of Gigha is just seven miles long by a mile and a half wide with a population of 160 people, and an equally small dairy company of just 60 cows. The Wee Isle Dairy began making artisan ice-cream in 2015 and now has six Flavours – including Bramble and Whisky – that it sells locally.

More recently it started producing milk – packaged the old-fashioned way, in glass bottles, and in just one form: whole (“full fat”). The company would like to supply the milk to its local school of just 19 pupils, but under Scotland’s school milk guidelines, children five and up can only be served skimmed or semi-skimmed milk – a “stupid” policy, according to Wee Isle’s Don Dennis, who runs the business with his wife Emma Rennie Dennis.

“This is a good example of a very poorly though-out policy, which is not evidence based,” he told Kids Nutrition Report. “The Canadian study shows that if you look at the evidence, it would be semi-skimmed milk that should be banned from schools!”

He’s calling for the policy to be changed and has enlisted the help of the region’s Member of the Scottish parliament Michael Russell, who had been “supportive of our project” over the past two years.

 “It is perhaps a bit funny, that we have to attempt to change policy at the National level, in order to supply maybe 15 litres a week to our local primary school,” said Dennis. “We just feel it is ludicrous that our local primary school, which our son attends, cannot supply him with our whole milk, despite that being the wish of ourselves, our son, and the head of the school.”

“But my fingers are crossed that eventually we might see a change in this matter,” he added. Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, in New Zealand – a nation where heart disease is the leading cause of death and 11 of children aged two to 14 are obese – whole milk has gone back on the menu at one school as part of an initiative to help students keep a healthy weight. Dilworth, a boarding school for boys, revamped the cafeteria menu at its rural campus from one that was high in carbohydrates and added sugars and low in fat to one based on whole, unprocessed foods with natural fats – including whole milk.

Students lost centimetres from their waistlines and saw reductions in their BMI, and the school has since rolled out similar changes (although less dramatic) at its other campus.

The changes were made with nutrition advice from registered dietician Dr Caryn Zinn and Dr Grant Schofield, Professor of Public Health, and Director of the Human Potential Centre at Auckland University of Technology (AUT). Zinn and Schofield are low-carb high-fat advocates who have called for the food pyramid to be “Flipped”.

These two anecdotes from opposite sides of the world might not, for now, change much – although it’s worth noting that Dr Schofield was recently (somewhat controversially) appointed the NZ Ministry of Education’s first Chief Education Health and Nutrition Advisor. But they are part of a larger picture that’s emerging of consumers losing their fear of fat, and in particular dairy fat, which has benefited from a spate of positive research findings in recent years.

In many places, whole milk is bucking the trend of falling fluid milk sales. In the US state of Vermont whole milk sales were up nearly 12% in 2016, according to the state’s Valley News, which said the trend appeared to be related to studies showing that whole milk and other full-fat dairy products were good for you. Nationally, whole milk sales rose 4.9% last year while low and reduced fat milks saw falling sales, according to USDA figures.

It seems consumers have decided for themselves that official dietary advice on whole milk is no longer worth listening to.

Adapted from - Mellentin, J. (2017).

1.   What factors are influencing the market?

2.   How have the stakeholders adapted to stimulate demand?

3.   What are the main aims and objectives of this article?

4.   How would you develop the “whole milk” brand?

Present your findings in a 500-word report and a 6-slide presentation.