Washington Post Health Columnist Anahad O’Connor spoke with experts on the role of dairy in bone growth and overall health. Experts agree that plain milk is a far more nutritional beverage than many flavored drinks offered to children, but some say that dairy milk isn’t as essential to overall health as many people believe.

The “milk making you taller” discussion continues to vary among experts. “Drinking cow’s milk increases your levels of hormones like IGF-1, which promotes the growth of bone and muscle tissue,” said Walter Willett, a professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. But Willett, who grew up on a dairy farm in the Midwest, said that any extra growth that may be gained with heavy milk consumption is a double-edged sword. Longer bones are more likely to break, which might explain the higher fracture rates in milk-drinking countries.

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