Implications
Canada’s Food Guide recommends the amount and type of milk and alternatives in order to ensure that children and youth have healthy bones and optimal health. Not drinking/eating sufficient milk and alternatives can be influenced by a number of factors. A family’s ability to purchase sufficient food – food insecurity – will influence whether or not children have access to the foods to keep them healthy.¹ Cultural practices may not include milk as a common food – Canada’s Food Guide recommends alternate foods that may be more acceptable. Marketing unhealthy foods and beverages may influence children and youth to choose other beverages.² Drinking beverages with extra calories but little nutritional value can replace milk or alternates and influence children’s health.

¹Pan Canadian Public Health Network. 2017. Towards a Healthier Canada – 2017 Progress Report on Advancing the Federal / Provincial / Territorial Framework on Healthy Weights.
²Sadeghirad B, Duhaney T, Motaghipisheh S, Campbell NCR, Johnston BC. Influence of unhealthy food and beverage marketing on children’s dietary intake and preference: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized trials. Obesity Reviews 2016;17(10):945–959.