A food fight is brewing in the school cafeteria, and this time, it's promises to be much nastier than the one that got those kids jailed:
The milk industry clearly doesn't want chocolate milk to go the way of the soda can in schools. Sure, a serving of chocolate milk has 60 more calories, but kids love it, so they'll drink more milk if it's an option instead of other sugary drinks, the campaign contends. The National Dairy Council and the Milk Processor Education Program are spending between $500,000 to $1 million to get the message across.
But no amount of money will convince people like Marlene Schwartz, deputy director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University, that chocolate milk needs to be in schools. She told the AP that kids get needed calcium elsewhere and do not need yet another source of sugar additives that contribute to obesity. Ann Cooper, director of nutrition services at the Boulder Valley School District in Colorado, notes in the same story that kids "happily drink white milk" when it's the only milk available at school. The "renegade lunch lady," as she calls herself, also said that the extra 40 to 60 calories on top of the 110 calories in a typical 8-ounce serving of white milk "could add up to 5 pounds of weight gain over the 180-day school year." Her district does not offer chocolate milk.
So, should schools ban chocolate milk? Will kids revolt if they did? Link
Also, 60 calories is hardly something worthy of a ban, especially for children.
Moderation is a great thing to learn, and kids do need to have their diets moderated by responsible adults, but I am really tired of having two healthy young children who are forced to miss out on treats because other parents are apparently incapable of enforcing a healthy diet at home and seem to expect other authority figures to impose it for them.
It's true that calcium is found in more natural sources of food, ones that do not contain such additives or sugar.
No other animal other than humans will continue to nurse from another species for all its life, it's just not natural. We will not suffer any harm if we just eat properly in the first place.
Just feed them bread and water then. How about instead of banning something that could be bad for you in excess, teach the children how to make decisions. My cafeteria had ALL sorts of junk food when I was growing up. In fact my favorite meal was pizza and french fries on Fridays. It didn't matter though because I was taught how to eat right and I went outside and played!
Banning chocolate milk is like prohibition for kids. If they have bad habits, they'll just go get their fix somewhere else.
My son, who's always been underweight should be able to supplement his calories with chocolate milk. He normally picks healthy choices otherwise. He loves salads. I think I may just pack his lunch instead. I'd rather he had a warm lunch.