New guidelines recommend plain water and milk for youth, discourage caffeine
Key takeaways:
- The new guidelines recommend varying daily intakes of plain water and plain pasteurized milk in youth.
- Intake of flavored milk, plant-based milk alternatives and 100% fruit and vegetable juice should be limited.
Experts from several major health organizations have released new evidence-based recommendations regarding drinks among those aged 5 to 18 years.
According to the guidance, children and adolescents should drink plain water and plain pasteurized milk while limiting their intake of beverages like:
- plant-based milk alternatives;
- flavored milks; and
- 100% fruit and vegetable juice.
Sugar-sweetened beverages, beverages with no-sugar sweeteners and beverages with caffeine or other stimulants should be avoided entirely, the guidance said.
The gold-standard recommendations “reflect the latest science,” Megan Elsener Lott, MPH, RDN, Healthy Eating Research (HER) deputy director, told Healio.
“Previous recommendations had not been updated within the past 5 to 10 years and during this time many new products have entered the marketplace” she added. “Existing recommendations did not cover all of the different beverage categories available today and new evidence has emerged in some categories, leaving gaps for both health practitioners and families.”
The recommendations were formed in collaboration by experts from the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Heart Association, the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry and the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics under the leadership of HER and with funding by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
The same organizations previously established guidance on drinks for newborns and those aged up to 5 years in 2019.
“These are four of the leading groups representing health practitioners serving children and families in the country, and if we could get them all to one set of recommendations so that families are now hearing consistent messaging when they go to the variety of health care providers, that in and of itself is a huge win,” Lott explained. “It helps reduce the level of confusion among children and families.”
HER developed the guidance by reviewing past research, current guidelines from national and international bodies and reports on beverage consumption among youth.
Recommendations
The guidance recommends daily water intakes of 16 to 40 ounces for those aged 5 to 8 years, 22 to 61 ounces for those aged 9 to 13 years and 29 to 88 ounces for those aged 14 to 18 years.
For plain pasteurized milk, up to 20 ounces daily are recommended for those aged 5 to 8 years and 24 ounces daily for those aged 9 to 18 years.
The experts also recommended that daily intakes of 100% fruit and vegetable juice be limited to 4 to 6 ounces for those aged 5 to 8 years, 6 to 8 ounces for those aged 9 to 13 years and less than 8 ounces for those aged 14 to 18 years.
According to the recommendations, plant-based milk alternatives may be appropriate for certain dietary needs or medical conditions, like an allergy to dairy proteins, but are otherwise not recommended due to not being nutritionally equal to cow’s milk.
“The exception there is fortified soy milk,” Lott told Healio. “What we found from our research with parents is that's not what they're giving their kids. A lot of them are defaulting to almond milk or oat milk, which are not nutritionally equivalent.”
Frequent intake of flavored milk is also not recommended across all ages.
“If you look at data from the National School Lunch Program, the biggest source of added sugars in kids’ diets is flavored milk,” Lott said. “It is an area where we really could reduce consumption of added sugar significantly.”
Guidance may inform future policies
Lott expanded on the guidelines’ possible impact beyond providing health care providers and families with consistent recommendations.
“It would be great if these recommendations are also taken into account by industry. For example, there may be some changes they could make with product packaging, product labeling, or product development and innovation that could be really helpful for families and consumers to provide other alternatives that are healthier,” she said.
Lott added that the recommendations could also help to inform the development of the 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans and other policy changes.
“I think we present a pretty strong case for why chocolate milk or flavored milk should be removed from school meals,” she said.
References:
- Ages 5-18 beverage recommendations. Available at: https://healthyeatingresearch.org/tips-for-families/ages-5-beverage-recommendations/. Accessed Jan. 29, 2025.
- Healthy beverage consumption in school-age children and adolescents. Available at: https://healthyeatingresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/HER_ConsensusStatement_FINAL.pdf. Accessed Jan. 29, 2025.
- Top health experts release new drink recommendations for kids and teens’ overall health. Available at: https://www.eatrightpro.org/about-us/for-media/press-releases/top-health-experts-release-new-drink-recommendations-for-kids-and-teens-overall-health. Published Jan. 29, 2025. Accessed Jan. 29, 2025.