Chocolate Milk Bans: Coming Soon to a School Near You?

Chocolate Milk Bans: Coming Soon to a School Near You?

When TV chef Jamie Oliver, host of the show “Food Revolution,” convinced the superintendent of Los Angeles schools to ban chocolate (and strawberry milk) last month, L.A. became the latest school district to ban what had been a staple of school lunches. Washington, DC, Berkley, and other large school districts have stopped selling chocolate milk, while New York City and the state of Florida have considered similar measures. Across the country, many smaller school districts have also stopped serving chocolate milk at lunch. Are chocolate milk bans a bad idea?

It’s a tough issue for a lot of grown-ups because Lord knows I drank plenty of slightly warm chocolate milk in the cafeteria when I was growing up. If we all did it and turned out fine, why can’t they? But the fact is that we grew up in a time when kids weren’t as unhealthy as they are now. When we were growing up, Americans generally consumed a lot less sugar. My school cafeteria lunches didn’t include a dessert, but now most do. Sweets were something special that you didn’t eat every day. Seeing the way children in my neighborhood eat, I get the impression that many children expect to eat sweets not just every day, but several times a day, and that’s a problem.

There’s no doubt that chocolate milk is not as good for you as regular milk. A carton of chocolate milk has five teaspoons of sugar, putting it on par with a soda. That makes it a poor accompaniment to a nutritious meal and it sends the wrong message that your craving for something sweet is something that should always be indulged. Advocates of chocolate milk say that the alternative is that kids won’t drink milk at all and will therefore miss out on its nutrients. I expect that’s probably true at first, but eventually kids will get thirsty and if there’s only milk or water to drink, they’ll drink milk or water.

http://blogs.babble.com/family-kitchen/2011/05/06/chocolate-milk-bans-coming-soon-to-a-school-near-you/

Cheers!

and that'll be one hell of a mudslide!

The lack of daily PE and recess, plus large amounts of quick carbs (boxed foods) is what is doing them in. While I love Jamie Oliver's specials and his efforts, I feel this milk ban is misguided.

and we weren't mistaken for the animals that produce it. (In this case, I'm fairly satisfied it was mice producing our milk, I always had an insatiable desire for cheese after I had some.)

You know why?

We didn't sit down in front of a computer or TV for every hour of the day we were at home. My generation was the last thinner generation.

We actually still went outside and played. Yeah, we played video games, and some computer games too, but we also liked the outdoors.

I just assumed that chocolate milk is still just that--chocolate+milk and nothing else.

so I ask, why all the fuss? If your child wants to drink it do so at home. Just sayin'.

because they turn into sugar. Like what's added to the milk.

I would wager it's just one carton, as opposed to all the other quick carbs on their lunch tray and what they get at home.

We didn't start getting chocolate milk every day Until I was in 7th Grade (early 90s), when my school switched from cartons to the plastic bags.

In our high school we had a "salad bar" that students could buy from instead of (or in addition to, I suppose) the cafeteria food. They always had chocolate milk to sell. But in elementary school and junior high we had chocolate as an option only on Fridays.

The amount of sugar in chocolate milk is not good for kids.

Given that a lot of school lunches are for poorer kids whose family can't afford health care, it seems like this may be wise.

that's good for you, too. I don't like sweet drinks, and never have, so I always drank plain milk (and I still do as an adult).

Anything to help make school lunches more healthy is a plus in my opinion. If it was up to me, I'd ban Coke and Pepsi machines at schools, too. That's far worse than chocolate milk.

Besides, orange juice is better for warding off all the gazillion germs that schools are full of anyway.

This is ridiculous. :/

People need to start worrying about worthwhile things rather then pretending to be parents.

Heck, I remember when I was in school we had *coffee milk*.

The breakfasts are nothing but sugar and fats. The lunches are just as bad or worse.

We aren't "pretending to be parents", but are showing genuine concern for what kids are eating and the consequential risks to their health. If that doesn't concern you, at least consider that your tax dollars are going toward the school lunch program and to the burdens on the health care system caused by poor nutrition.

BTW.... many of us are actual parents!

Nutritious? Not from what I've seen on that show and elsewhere.

For the record, when I was in elementary school, we didn't have a chocolate/strawberry milk choice. I used to bring in a little pre-measured container of Quik to change that.

I have lunch duty every day and see what they serve. It is a national disgrace. Kudos to Michelle Obama for her part in initiating changes.

and that day was Wednesday! No cartons - we had the dispenser and were only allowed one glass. Damn, was that a treat.

But 40 years ago, most of us needed the calories, as the majority of my class were farm kids, and we worked it off.

if the kids want to load up on sugar at home, that's their business, but at school they can drink 2% or water:) No use adding to the problem at school. Now if we can get them to ditch the pizza & carbo-junk they call food:(

Besides chocolate, there is strawberry, vanilla, and orange-flavored milk. Seriously. I nearly fell over when I saw them selling lemonade to the kids. It's nothing but sugar water with a little lemon flavoring! They also sell them iced tea---as if they need the caffeine in addition to the sugar! Yes, this is an elementary school!

Those school lunch reforms cannot come soon enough! I really give Jamie Oliver credit for exposing some of these abuses.

In grade school, bag lunch or hot lunch, kids got milk - plain milk - when they came in the cafeteria. By high school, we were allowed to buy extra milk (no sodas available at all), but it was plain milk. True, I graduated in '82 but holy shit! Why are schools feeding even worse crap than usual to the hostages?

Some schools limit it to gatorade, but I've seen these machines in the schools. I am young enough to have been in school when candidates for class president would promise soda machines. It eventually happened and I think the schools now regret it. Schools are paid well to have those machines there. It's a scam.

Seriously. I'll be packing my stepkids a lunch.

It was 10 cents at school and was the only way I would drink milk.