There are parents who now turn to skim milk for their kids, thinking that it’s the healthier option. Unfortunately, this may not actually be the case, as TIME reports that shifting to skim milk may not lower the chance of ingesting fat or lessen the risk of obesity in children.

The American Heart Association (AHA) has long recommended that children take low-fat milk instead of whole milk after reaching their second year. Some studies, though, have contested that the kind of milk kids drink doesn’t have any relationship with their body weight. Because of the differences in results, Dr. Mark Daniel DeBoer from the University of Virginia School of Medicine gathered data from 10,700 children who participated in a previous survey in order to see the relationship between the kind of milk consumed by kids and their body mass indexes (BMIs).

Dr. DeBoer, together with his colleagues, interviewed guardians and parents of American children born in 2001, tracking whether they drank any of the following at age two and at age four: skim, 1 percent semi-skimmed milk, 2 percent fat milk, full fat milk, or soy milk. Other beverages such as sodas and fruit juices were also factored in.

The researchers found that 30 percent of the two-year-old volunteers and 32 percent of children of the four-year-old participants were considered either overweight or obese, despite the fact that some drank 1 percent semi-skimmed milk. More surprisingly, those who drank 2 percent fat milk had lower BMI scores as compared to those who drank the 1 percent option.

The key is for children to have a well-balanced diet. It’s okay to consume full cream milk as long as your kids consume the right amount of meat, fish, vegetables, and fruit regularly. Getting them physically active by encouraging them to join sports clubs can also help keep the excess fat off.

(Photo by jacqueline via Flickr Creative Commons)