New research has shown that children who drink plenty of milk are more likely to grow up to be healthier, taller and less likely to smoke.

The results of a 25-year study, published this weeek in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, also rejected the widely-held belief that drinking milk was more likely to lead to heart disease later in life.

Regular milk drinkers do not seem to be at increased risk of coronary artery disease and if anything, milk seems to protect against ill health, concluded the researchers from the University of Bristol.

They monitored more than 5,700 men aged between 35 and 64, recruited from several workplaces in the west of Scotland between 1970 and 1973.

Information was collected on their health and lifestyle, as well as social and economic factors. Each man was given a full physical examination and was asked to provide details of their milk consumption.

The study, led by Dr Andy Ness, found that death from heart disease was 8 per cent lower among men who drank more than a third of a pint of milk every day compared with those who drank less than a third of a pint. And death from all causes, including cancer and stroke, was 10 per cent lower.

The authors of the report are suggesting that the calcium in milk maybe counteracting the adverse effects of milk's saturated fat content.

Milk drinking may also be a marker for a healthier childhood, they say, as those who drank little or no milk tended to be shorter - an indicator of deprivation. Regular milk drinkers also smoked less.

"Our data do not support the notion that regular consumption of milk is hazardous to health," they conclude.