TRIP

No evidence milk boosts brain power

NHS Choices Behind the Headlines, 2012

Hundreds of conditions explained Over 100 topics on healthy living Help for those looking after others Health news stories unspun Don't miss out ...
This study can't prove that milk improves cognitive function
“Drinking just one glass of milk a day could boost your brain power,” the Daily Mail has reported today.
Milk is being hailed as a memory aid, the newspaper says, with a study showing that dairy products could “help stave off mental decline”.
The study on which the story is based found that adults with higher intakes of milk and other dairy products did better in memory and other brain function tests than those who drank little or no milk.
However, the Mail’s excitement is misplaced – the study did not show that milk was responsible for better mental performance.
All it showed was that, at one point in time, people who drank more milk performed better in mental tests than those who drank less.
It is possible that many other things influenced people’s performance in mental function tests, including occupation, stress levels, even how well they were feeling at the time they took the tests.
Milk may be good for your bones but so far there is no good evidence that it improves mental performance.
The study was carried out by researchers from the University of Maine in the US and the University of South Australia.
It was partly funded by the Maurice de Rohan International Scholarship, the University of South Australia and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, the National Institute on Aging and the National Institutes of Health, all in the US.