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Written by Gerry Pugliese
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Think back to grade school. Remember cafeteria food? What were the usual suspects? Most likely churros, mini cartons of chocolate milk, that “fruit” juice in a plastic cup with the foil lid, ice cream-scooped mashed potatoes, and defrosted squares of bland pizza. Oh, and for the weird kids, paste.
But now, as school officials struggle to be proactive against the childhood obesity epidemic, chocolate milk is being kicked out of schools.
In July, to help combat obesity, Washington, DC public schools stopped serving flavored milks, including chocolate milk, winning the support of celebrity chef Jamie Oliver.
But groups like the National Dairy Council, which launched the current campaign “Raise Your Hand for Chocolate Milk,” are obviously against bans like this, arguing that calcium deficiency is a big problem among young children and banning any milk will negatively impact school children.
Fortunantely the argument in favor of banning flavored milks from schools is much better: chocolate, and other flavored milks, are made with a lot of sugar and we all know that sugar isn't exactly improving kids' health.
So using calcium deficiency as a reason to endorse chocolate milk is harebrained at best, if milk helps build strong bones, then why is the chocolate, i.e. sugar, necessary? News flash, its not, stop being naïve.
Listen, I know our parents' parents drank chocolate milk in school, but times change, what was good for them, might not be good for kids these days. You can't blindly hold onto nastoglia, if banning sugar-sweetened chocolate milk is healthier for kids, then we have to do it. Sorry, Dairy Council.
I don't drink milk. Milk is for cows, not people. But if kids must drink it, give them regular milk and avoid the extra sugar. The National Dairy Council is clearly putting their own interests ahead of children's well being. Fail, major fail.
In related milk news, last month, a New York-based milk producer had to recall four brands of milk because they may have been improperly pasteurized.
Image credit: cloth.paper.string | sarah |
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