A recent study on ScienceDaily.com has shown that college students can still benefit from drinking milk.

Researchers reported that those who don’t consume three servings of dairy a day are three times more likely to develop metabolic syndrome when they are older. Metabolic syndrome is closely linked with heart disease and type 2 diabetes, and it's characterized by having any three of the following risk factors: abdominal obesity, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, and unhealthy cholesterol and lipid levels.

The study involved 339 Mexican college students, who were asked to fill out a food frequency questionnaire and were physically evaluated for metabolic syndrome risk. Initially, researchers thought that these young people were substituting sugary drinks for milk, since sodas and energy drinks are much more common than dairy. While partly right, one fourth of the participants were actually consuming sugary drinks in addition to dairy, which contributes to excess calories.

"We are concerned because persons in this age group don't visit the doctor often, and they may not know they have problems with their weight, blood pressure, lipids, or blood sugar," says Margarita Teran-Garcia, a University of Illinois professor of food science and human nutrition and part of the research team for this study.

Researchers have yet to discover what compounds in milk prevent metabolic syndrome. Nevertheless, it's important to drink more milk and less sugary drinks such as sodas and artificially sweetened juices. K keep a healthy diet and exercise regularly; you’ll thank yourself for it one day.

(Photo by Melissa Wiese via Flickr Creative Commons)