U.S. Schools' War Against Chocolate Milk

[The Straight Story]

U.S. Schools' War Against Chocolate Milk

It would sound like a joke if everyone weren't so up in arms about it. Taking a stand against chocolate milk? It's like canceling Christmas. What could possibly be wrong with something that brings children such joy?

A lot, according to some nutrition experts and school districts that are removing the brown liquid from lunchrooms. One 8-oz. serving of reduced-fat chocolate milk has nearly as many calories and sugar as a 12-oz. can of Coke. Encouraging students to regularly consume the drink, they say, is contributing to an already worrying childhood obesity crisis. (Read a brief history of school lunches.)

As chocolate milk opponents lobby state and federal officials, the dairy industry has responded with an estimated $1 million campaign dubbed "Raise Your Hand for Chocolate Milk." Launched in early November, the YouTube-intensive strategy is designed to highlight the drink's health benefits (vitamin D, calcium, potassium) and to counter the critics who have pegged it as nothing more than a sugar-laden snack drink.

While milk has been the keystone of America's school lunches since the federally subsidized program was established in 1946, the role of chocolate (and other flavored) milk has become a focus of late following a 2006 rule that required schools to establish comprehensive "wellness programs." Public school districts in Berkeley, Calif., and Boulder, Colo. — two of America's more progressive towns — have removed the drink from their list of daily offerings, opting for low-fat, organic white milk instead. That's a perfect way to force kids to shun milk completely, says the dairy industry.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1948865,00.html?cnn=yes#ixzz0atic6OPj

[hobbit709]

1. I guess it doesn't occur to these people

that maybe reducing the amount of sugar in the chocolate milk would make a difference instead of banning it outright.
Like most things with sugar added, half the sugar would still make it sweet.

[hlthe2b]

5. Exactly... they could easily make chocolate milk more healthy...

I so detested milk as a child that if it weren't for cheese and chocolate milk, I might not have teeth today... ;)

[SharonAnn]

37. Me too. I didn't like regular milk at all. Wouldn't drink it. But chocolate milk - another story.

I drank a lot of chocolate milk in junior high and high school. Now I realize that, had it not been for chocolate milk at school, I would've been very calcium deprived during critical years.

As a woman, my bones are in much better shape because of chocolate milk than they would've been without it.

[KittyWampus]

18. also, there are different kinds of sugar. Alcohol sugars are diabetic safe, for instance

[fishwax]

22. I don't think "these people" have any control over the amount of sugar

But perhaps if many school districts (the article only mentions two) stopped buying chocolate milk then manufacturers might offer options with lower sugar.

[dysfunctional press]

2. when i was a child, i couldn't drink white milk without vomitting...

so my parents only gave me chocolate milk.

"If a child chooses chocolate milk instead of regular milk every single day for a year, she says, they'll gain about 3 lbs. because of the extra sugar and calories."

what if the sugar gives them the extra energy to burn off the extra calories?

[hlthe2b]

7. Yet these same folks fought against reduced fat dairy for years

in children.... There is no reason children can not receive 2% milk fat dairy instead of full (4%) fat, yet even the Federal WIC program fought that change until recently.

I say they should take out the crap from the vending machines and look at the garbage being served including nutrient-lacking simple carbohydrates in the school lunch program. Maybe even (God forbid) get rid of the open campus policies that sends all these kids down to the crap fast food joints.

[LWolf]

17. It doesn't work that way.

Sugar doesn't give "extra energy to burn off extra calories." :eyes:

If they sweetened the chocolate milk with stevia, there wouldn't be an issue.

[dysfunctional press]

23. "If they sweetened the chocolate milk with stevia, there wouldn't be an issue."

except for the taste. :P

i have not been impressed with most of the stevia-'sweetened' items that have been inflicted on me.
but i've always seemed to have an extremely sensitive sense of taste and smell...or so i've been told by friends, family, and spouse.

[LWolf]

32. You get used to it, like anything else.

Taste buds adjust, when we make them. ;)

[dysfunctional press]

34. luckily tho, nobody has to if they don't want to.

i know i don't.

want to.

[eilen]

3. I dispute that chocolate milk has the same amount of sugar

as soft drinks. That is ridiculous.-- Unless they have added more in recent times.

I made choc. or vanilla milk for my kids all the time. BFD. Add a little Hershey's syrup or 2 tsp of the quick mix or add a few drops of vanilla extract and some splenda. Many kids get half their calories at school for the day, for some it is the only hot meal.

Maybe they should look at the mystery meat, mashed potatoes and gravy and craptastic pizza they are dishing out. Why aren't the kids getting real cheese on their white bread sandwiches? They get the processed oil crap. When schools start serving quality food instead of warmed over frozen fast food then I'll listen to them bitch about milk.

[hlthe2b]

6. I make hot chocolate with milk, cocoa and stevia...

I never even miss the sugar and none of those nasty artificial chemical sweeteners, either.

[fishwax]

14. 8 oz of Nesquick low fat chocolate milk has 31 grams of sugar, compared to 27 in 8 oz of pepsi

Some other brands have a bit less, but it's mostly in the high 20s.

[LWolf]

19. Schools don't make chocolate milk.

They buy it in a carton.

Most don't make the food, either. They re-heat it.

Real kitchens and real cooking is expensive; not just for the food, but for the costs of labor.

I'd love to see fully stocked and staffed kitchens preparing fresh food for every child in the U.S.. When the public decides schools ought to be fully funded and staffed, in other words, when pigs fly, it could happen.

[tonysam]

21. School districts haven't had real cooks in YEARS

They need to go back to that; the food was far better when I was going to school in the sixties/early seventies.

[hlthe2b]

24. The school employed dieticians are also from the Dark Ages...

Despite the epidemic of type II diabetes, not to mention the insulin-dependent Type I kids with insulin pumps, they are oblivious to needed changes in practice. I was appalled to be asked to address related issues with a large school district--only to find that their response to diabetes was to push the carbs, but with no recognition of simple versus complex carbohydrates, nor glycemic index. Nor did they seem interested in adapting their practices around science that is hardly new. And this, was in a large and supposedly progressive Colorado school district.

[LWolf]

33. Yes.

Real cooks, fresh food....what a concept. ;)

[donco6]

4. It's really between school boards and Anti-dairy types.

As with everything else, the school is just caught in the middle. We can do whatever you guys want, but we're at the mercy of the board.

[ThatsMyBarack]

8. Those poor kids!

STOP forbidding them to have stuff that tasted good! :grr:

[Odin2005]

9. That is fucking sacrilege!

:grr:

[Dinger]

10. At My School We Have Five Milk Choices:

2% white milk
fat free white milk
chocolate milk
fat free chocolate milk
strawberry milk

The most popular choice seems to be fat free chocolate, with strawberry a close second.

[Cetacea]

11. The body absorbs more anti-oxidants from chocolate milk than dark chocolate

and is probably the healthiest food on the menu.

[begin_within]

12. Would they rather have kids drinking soda than chocolate milk?

At least milk has protein, calcium, and whatever vitamins have been added (Vitamin D usually). Soda has no nutritional value whatsoever.

[IcyPeas]

25. that's exactly what I was thinking begin_within.

there's protein and vitamins in milk - there's nothing nutritious in soda. I always drank chocolate milk in grade school (I am not obese). I doubt that's what is contributing to the obesity problem in this country. These people are ridiculous. Fight the real battles - not chocolate milk..... sheeesh

[Igel]

40. Of course not.

But wannabe-nannies out to save the world just know what they want others to do and get frustrated when they don't do it properly.

They believe themselves to enable good behavior, but when people reject being "enabled" they feel quite comfortable with coercion. The wannabe-nannies eventually tire of being tolerant and patient with others' ignorance. If they can't make converts through the word, they'll make due with using force.

Yes, chocolate milk has about as much sugar per ounce as soda. Since sodas vary, and chocolate milk varies, that's about as specific as you can get without actually stating brand of milk and soda.

Perhaps half of that sugar comes from the cow. Non-fat milk has just a little more sugar than whole milk (since the fat removed is sugar-free). And chocolate milk has actual nutrients. But the evil it does, all that nasty sugar, and the fact that it's a *product*, well, that means it has to go.

As always, a bureaucrat only has power to the extent it can exercise power. Without exercising power, a bureaucrat is meaningless, and often the exercise of power is the goal, with the ostensible goal being the means to the goal. Most bureaucrats actually like exercising power; in my view, that immediately disqualifies them for the job.

[fishwax]

13. nothing wrong with that

Back when I was in elementary school we had the option of chocolate milk once every couple of weeks or so. I always looked forward to those days :)

But I see nothing wrong with a district choosing to offer healthier options instead, particularly on a daily basis.

[pipi_k]

15. Once again, instead of looking at the root of the problem...

They go looking for bogeymen under rocks...


Encouraging students to regularly consume the drink, they say, is contributing to an already worrying childhood obesity crisis.


Making chocolate milk available doesn't translate to "encouraging students to regularly consume the drink" any more than making birth control (information) available to teens "encourages" them to have sex.


As everyone knows, childhood obesity is caused by a combination of factors, one of which is lack of physical exercise. They can ban chocolate milk all they want to, but there will STILL be obese kids.

And yeah...the shitty school lunches. Not to mention that most schools, as far as I know, offer up a variety of desserts for lunch, many of them far from healthy.

But chocolate milk becomes the villain...


assholes!

[LeftyMom]

16. Skip the milk and give the little ankle biters a bit of decent chocolate.

It's better for them.

[tonysam]

20. More bullshit from the food police

Their forcing a pseudo-vegan diet on people isn't going to work.

[jmowreader]

26. So many pro-chocolate milk DUers...

Come on, guys: if this was a story about ANY OTHER PRODUCT WITH HFCS IN IT, we'd all be like "ban it! Ban it now! Burn the dairy to the ground!"

I have in front of me the ingredients list for Berkeley Farms Lowfat Chocolate Milk: 1% lowfat milk, HFCS, sugar, cocoa, cocoa processed with alkali, nonfat milk, carrageenan, salt, artificial flavor, Vitamin A palmitate, Vitamin D3.

It's possible to make chocolate milk with no HFCS--Pet Dairies uses their refusal to jump on the HFCS bandwagon as a selling point. Maybe they need a special School Lunch Recipe chocolate milk--nonfat milk (if you can mix cow's milk and soymilk without having it explode that would be good too), only sugar and half as much as you'd otherwise use, and no artificial flavors. Cutting the sugar in half would fully subsidize the extra cost of real vanilla.

[eilen]

27. My solution:

Walmart Nestle and other Dairy providers. Tell them that our schools will no longer purchase their regular chocolate milk as packaged, They must prepare it according to spec. No HFCS. No ax, steroids, no artificial crap etc. Must be organic with some cocoa and a little sugar-- 5 mg (1 tsp). Then they will have our contract.

Next: real potatoes.
think about it, all the varieties-- sweet potatoes, red potatoes, fingerlings, blue potatoes. Ban the processed flake!

Before you know it -- bread that doesn't taste like sawdust.

Coming to a school district near you!

[jmowreader]

28. rBST is about to die a well-deserved death thanks to Walmart

Walmart is sourcing their house brand milk from rBST-free farms. And it's probably the most popular brand of milk in the United States. As with anything else, no producer of consumer goods is going to do anything that will keep his product out of Walmart--we don't like the fuckers, but the reality of it is there are very few consumer products companies who can write that company off. There's a beloved article at http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/102/open_snapper.html about someone who did but I don't think it's applicable here; there is a difference between a gallon of milk and a $500 lawn mower Walmart couldn't even sell right.

As for the "real potatoes" comment: it's a good idea but I'm going to assume quite a few school lunch programs use "kitchens" designed specifically to rehydrate freeze-dried foods and heat retort pouches.

[Igel]

41. Not me.

I know that sucrose breaks down to 50% fructose/50% glucose fairly quickly.

And that the 60-40% split in HFCS with that abominably high fructose concentration pales compared to natural fruit juice.

Limit your consumption of sugars and the problem's solved. Unless you're lactose intolerant, then limit in general and avoid in that instance.

[Libertas1776]

29. My god,

can't our kids just live anymore? Now they're bitching about chocolate milk. Chocolate milk?! If you want to improve their health, why don't you start complaining about the 99.9% of other crap they serve your kids at lunch time.

[no_hypocrisy]

30. Will the Food Police now be checking thermoses for contraband chocolate milk smuggled into schools?

Hey, Tommy! I'll give you $3.00 for a cup of that.

[Jamastiene]

31. How dare they!!!!

What next? Do they plan on banning cheese too? :mad:

Leave chocolate milk alone! :P

[Patriot 76]

35. Go ahead and ban chocolate milk and the next thing you know...

kids will be selling Nestle Quik powder in single serve bags on the black market.

[Paladin]

36. Jeez, Aren't These Libertarian Wish Fulfillment Threads Fun? (n/t)

[eilen]

38. They are raising a straw man to divert people from the real problem

of school lunches: (found on TreeHugger)

Are School Lunches Safe?: 26,500 Schools Lack Proper Inspections


The findings, originally published by USA Today, found that 26,500 school cafeterias lack required inspections. The National School Lunch Program requires schools to have their cafeteria kitchens inspected at least twice a year by a state or local health agency. But these inspections cost money, nearly $138 per inspection per school. As a result nearly 30 percent of schools reporting on their inspections in 2006-07 and 2007-08 had not complied with inspection protocols.

School Nutrition Sub Par
Cost is not the only issue affecting the food that our children eat. For example, the Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004 expired on September 30, 2009, according to School Nutrition Association. The issue, however, has been pushed to the back burner as a result of other legislative priorities, including healthcare reform and the war in Afganistan. But what's more important than the health of the next generation?

Adding more fresh fruits and vegetables, reducing meat consumption, and connecting school with local producers should become a priority for our schools. Programs like Edible Schoolyard are a step in the right direction. The program brings edible gardens to school grounds where students can cultivate their food with their own hands, which can connect them with nature before they bring the finished produce inside to learn how to cook it in a healthy manner while still at school.

[truth2power]

39. Two things...Meijer stores (I don't know if that's a national chain) have unsweetened

chocolate milk. It tasts just as good as regular.

#2. it's not the sugar, per se. It's the high fructose corn syrup. It's in everything. Contributes to obesity, among other things. It's cheap. That's why manufacturers use it.

[aikoaiko]

42. I am pro-chocolate milk. Ch milk has good stuff in it as well as calories.

I'd rather my kid drink chocolate milk than a lot of other things for lunch - even water.