Children aged two to five years old who drank more than 12 ounces of fruit juice a day tended to be shorter and fatter than children with more balanced diets, a study published on Monday said.

Researchers from the Bassett Research Institute in Cooperstown, New York, studied the diets and growth rates of 225 children from the two age groups, and found 19 children consumed large amounts of fruit juice.

On average, the mostly white children in the study consumed six ounces of juice per day.

Of the 19 heavy juice drinkers, eight were between one and two inches shorter than the average, and ten were in the upper quartile in terms of weight.

Milk consumption was not found to be a factor in either stature or weight, researcher Barbara Dennison wrote in the journal Paediatrics.

She said children and parents will often choose juice -- children because it is sweet and adults because it has a healthy image.

But the American Academy of Paediatrics has recommended to parents to not routinely serve young children juice in infant bottles. The group also warned that some sugars present primarily in apple and pear juice can result in chronic diarrhoea, abdominal pain or bloating.

*** A Florida environmental group wants the popular cookbook "Joy of Cooking'' to remove suggestions for the preparation of sea turtles as meals.

Sue Ellen Smith of the Sea Turtle Survival League said Tuesday the group had written to the book's publisher, Penguin Books USA, requesting the references be deleted.

"I am discouraged to find that despite our education efforts `Joy of Cooking' is encouraging its readers to cook and eat endangered sea turtles,'' the letter said.

"We believe Penguin books should be sensitive to this issue and realise its responsibility by removing all references to cooking sea turtles found in `Joy of Cooking,''' it said.

It noted that killing sea turtles listed as an endangered species was illegal in the United States and punishable by jail.

Under the heading "Turtles and Terrapins,'' the book tells readers that because "handling and cooking these monsters'' is difficult, "most of us are content to enjoy their highly-prized, highly-priced gelatinous meat ready-diced and in cans.'' Smith told Reuters that Penguin had so far failed to reply to the letter.

Penguin representatives were unavailable for comment.