The Case Against Banning Chocolate Milk

Here’s the clearly very sensible Penny McConnell of the Fairfax County school system, in Virginia, on chocolate milk: “Banning a food may not be as helpful as the more complicated task of teaching kids to look at their whole plates, and make good choices.”

Eliminating chocolate milk from school cafeterias has become a common quick fix for our childhood obesity problem. A few strokes of a pen can earn a policy maker some nice pats on the back, as schools like those in Fayetteville, Ark. (no more chocolate milk at breakfast), and Los Angeles (no more flavored milk at all) have found. Fighting on the other side is the milk industry, which runs a campaign describing chocolate milk as a “nutrient-rich beverage option for kids” and released its very own survey results earlier this year showing that 84 percent of parents want chocolate milk served in schools.

Yes, parents do want chocolate milk, Ms. McConnell told NPR’s Allison Aubrey.

“When we eliminated chocolate milk,” she said, “we had as many parents upset as the ones who were pleased with it.” Instead, she worked with her dairy suppliers to reformulate chocolate milk with only 30 calories more than the regular milk her school serves.

Although Ms. McConnell’s new chocolate milk has all the calcium and nutrients of regular milk, it still isn’t as solid a health choice (and you’ll find parents who say milk is not a healthy choice at all). What’s important is that it remains a choice. A parent, a teacher or an educator could suggest that a child with milk money choose regular milk more often, or even just once a week. Children may not do it the first time, or the second, but they are learning more from hearing the suggestion than they are if the milk just disappears from the case.

It’s easier to ban foods than to teach our kids to make healthy choices or to allow them to make mistakes. But every time I meet another mom whose preschooler’s lips have never been sullied by corn syrup, I wonder how that child is going to fare on his or her own. With some of my kids’ friends, I know the answer: the child whose parents never buy chips is often the one turning the bag over and desperately shaking salt and crumbs onto a plate, while the kids who I know have free access to everything from Oreos to apples can and will shove aside a bowl, no matter how delicious a vice it contains, once they have had their fill.

There are no chocolate milk bans in the real world. What we say to our kids about food matters, and saying, “I don’t trust you to make good choices” isn’t as effective as teaching how to choose, even if a whole lot of not-so-good choices get made along the way. Ms. McConnell’s approach is better for kids in the long run. I wouldn’t extend this argument to giving elementary school students open access to French fries and junk food at every lunch, and I’m still angered by the House’s decision — which can only be of service to food industry lobbyists — to ban the Department of Agriculture from recommending limits on the number of starchy vegetables like potatoes that are served in school lunches. But chocolate milk represents a good training-ground choice between healthy and less-healthy, and a good education includes learning how to make that choice.

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What’s To Love And Loathe About Chocolate Milk?

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Across the country, schools have been tossing chocolate milk out of lunchrooms. But these New York City kids chugged low-fat chocolate milk as part of Refuel America. Launched in the summer of 2010, the campaign promotes the drink for post-exercise recovery.

Chocolate milk has an interesting rap these days. Endurance athletes increasingly love it as a recovery drink.

And who’s loathing it? Schools — advocates for school food reform, to be more specific. They argue it’s got too much added sugar and too many calories.

So how to explain the love? Well, a few, small exercise studies have found that chocolate milk can help boost endurance after intense workouts. Research also suggests that the protein in milk speeds up the time it takes for muscles to recover.

“I think in years past, you would have been a little bit strange if you drank chocolate milk immediately after a run. But now it’s absolutely mainstream,” says marathon runner Dan DiFonzo of Rockville, Md.

DiFonzo says runners are looking for that one drink that will help them feel better so they can run again. “Chocolate milk’s been doing it for me, so I stick with it,” DiFonzo told The Salt.

 

Melissa Forsyth/NPR

DiFonzo says that when he ran the Wineglass Marathon in Corning, N.Y., earlier this month, he had expected the tables of Gatorade and water. But as he crossed the finish line, what was he handed? A carton of chocolate milk, compliments of the American Dairy Association.

Adding to the intrigue over chocolate milk is a new line of scientific inquiry. Researchers at Penn State are studying the unusual way that cocoa interacts with a specific digestive enzyme.

“Compounds in cocoa inhibit the activity of the (pancreatic lipase) enzyme, so they block it from breaking down fat,” explains researcher Josh Lambert. Basically, that helps the body fend off fat.

If it sounds too good to be true, Lambert says it’s too soon to get excited over the potential of eating cocoa to manage your weight: “It’s hard for me to tell if there’s enough of the (polyphenolic) compounds in a glass of chocolate milk to make it that much different.”

Whatever boost the good compounds in chocolate milk may provide, the bum rap it’s getting in schools is due to the fact that it’s usually loaded with extra sugar and calories.

“In my world, chocolate milk is soda in drag,” says Ann Cooper, director of Food Services at the Boulder Valley School District in Colorado. She’s also known as The Renegade Lunch Lady — and a leader in the effort to transform the way kids eat at school.

“Most of it (chocolate milk) has as much sugar as Pepsi or Coke, and it doesn’t belong at schools,” Cooper told me at an event sponsored by Real Food for Kids in Fairfax County, Va.

Lots of reformers are tossing chocolate milk out of the lunchroom. From Los Angeles to Minneapolis and D.C., schools have been eliminating or limiting flavored milk. Many see it as a small but concrete effort to address the childhood obesity epidemic. And even famous TV foodies are taking up the cause. Earlier this year, British foodie Jamie Oliver appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! to make the case against chocolate milk.

Banning chocolate milk may sound like a simple step aimed at making kids healthier. But there’s a long history of drinking chocolate milk (mainly, hot cocoa) in schools. Notes dating to the early 1900s from the School Lunch Committee of the Home and School League in Philadelphia show that a serving of milk or cocoa was offered every day as part of a five-cent noon meal.

And when schools take away the option of chocolate milk, it doesn’t always go smoothly. “When we eliminated chocolate milk” explains Penny McConnell of the Fairfax County Schools, “we had as many parents upset as the ones who were pleased with it.” Some worried their children would stop drinking milk and wouldn’t get enough calcium.

So McConnell worked with her dairy suppliers to eliminate high fructose corn syrup and reformulate the chocolate milk. The skim chocolate milk she now serves has only 30 calories more than the regular 1 percent milk.

And what’s the reaction been? “I haven’t heard any complaints,” McConnell told me.

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Got milk? Schools say, maybe not when it’s chocolate milk

Isai Garcia’s favorite before-bedtime snack is a little cake washed down with a glass of chocolate milk.

The 11-year-old closed his eyes as he described the ritual, smacked his lips and squeezed his hands together. “I love chocolate,” he said.

Isai’s eyes then opened onto the table in the cafeteria of Bridgeport’s Bryant School, where milk is not on his tray.

Offered plain milk in two varieties — 1-percent or skim — as he guided his tray through the lunch line, Isai opted for neither.

“I don’t know why they did away with chocolate milk. It was here last year. I don’t like plain milk so much,” Isai said.

Seizing on a trend that has pitted health advocates against one another and even prompted a Yale study, Bridgeport Public Schools decided this fall to see what would happen if they pulled chocolate milk from the menu. It isn’t the only school district to yank it. New Haven ditched chocolate milk a year ago.

Even in its low-fat form, chocolate milk has added sugar or high fructose corn syrup that some nutritionists say students don’t need, particularly those who live in urban areas where obesity and diabetes are major health concerns.

But others argue that without a milk choice, students would be hard pressed to meet their daily calcium requirement or get essential nutrients like potassium, riboflavin, niacin, and vitamins A, D and B12.

Since the experiment began in Bridgeport, milk consumption at elementary schools has plummeted. In September 2010, the district served an average of 17,878 cartons of milk a day. This September, students consumed an average of 9,370 cartons.

Before this year, the district handed out more than 1 million cartons of milk in a school year. Roughly 70 percent of that milk was low-fat chocolate. The other 30 percent was 1-percent or skim plain milk.

The idea to forgo chocolate milk came from parents who sit on a school lunch advisory panel formed last winter. The group reviews menus, taste tests new items and offers suggestions to Maura O’Malley, director of food services for the district.

Parent Debbie Reyes-Williams, who has 5-year-old triplets and a 4-year-old, said she doesn’t serve chocolate milk at home and preferred it not be an option at school. Last year, her children were at Skane School. Now two are at Multicultural Magnet School.

“I don’t mind it as a treat but not every day,” said Reyes-Williams, who objects to the amount of sugar in chocolate milk.

Other parents agreed. Irjloa Ali, the mother of a kindergartner at Blackham school, said she was a dentist in her native Albania. She doesn’t serve chocolate milk at home and is glad Bridgeport started the 2011-12 school year without chocolate milk in its elementary schools. Low-fat chocolate milk is still available in city high schools.

At Bryant School, where the lunch room cooler is slow to empty of eight-ounce milk cartons and a lot of cartons remain unopened on trays, Ashley Gonzalez, 10, said skim milk tastes like water.

Ester Kong, 11, making a face, said white milk tastes plain.

Madison Harris, 10 — an exception to the rule — took a long sip of 1-percent plain milk and said he likes it.

O’Malley, who was originally on the fence about whether to serve only white milk, now has come to a conclusion. Chocolate milk, she says, is better than no milk.

“I would rather see them drink their chocolate milk and have all those important nutrients that they can only get in milk. Especially if they are not getting milk at home,” said O’Malley.

Others want the district to hold out a bit longer. Reyes-Williams said over time, she believes students will become more accepting of plain milk.

There is some evidence Reyes-Williams may be right.

Last year, Bridgeport served as the “flavored milk” control group in an experiment conducted by the Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy Obesity. During the study, milk consumption in Bridgeport was compared with another urban district where chocolate milk was removed from the menu. Yale won’t identify the other district.

Preliminary findings of the study, presented in October at the American Public Health Association’s annual conference, showed that Bridgeport students drank milk more frequently than students in the district where only plain milk was offered.

Kathryn Henderson, a research scientist and director of School and Community Initiatives at the Yale Rudd Center, said more work needs to be done to see if students will increase their milk consumption over time if plain milk is the only option offered.

Henderson said her group is not saying children should never have chocolate milk, but it should not be a staple of their lunch diet 180 days a year.

“Kids consume an enormous amount of added sugar outside of school. School should not be a place that is contributing to that problem,” she said.

In Milford, Eileen S. Faustich, director of food services and former president of the School Nutrition Association of Connecticut, called chocolate milk a hot topic but not so hot that she has been persuaded to cut it from her menus.

“All milk is an excellent source of calcium, which is lacking in children’s and adults’ diets. Students consume more milk when it is flavored. My main concern is to serve nutrient-dense foods and limiting milk choices reduces the nutrition students consume,” Faustich said.

In Stratford, Karen Cook, director of food services, said she is more concerned with fat content than calories. She makes sure the milk served is low fat or no fat.

But in New Haven, Executive Director of Food Services Timothy Cipriano cut flavored milk from the menu a year ago because he said it clashed with his otherwise healthy offerings.

“We don’t have desserts in our schools. We have salad bars in all of schools and a pretty dynamic menu with some great items. It didn’t make sense to compliment them with chocolate milk. It didn’t really jibe,” Cipriano said.

Since the district went cold turkey, Cipriano admits milk consumption has taken a big hit, but added it is slowly coming back.

“When I go into the schools and look around the cafeteria at the kids eating,” he said, “there is a good chunk of them with milk on their trays.”

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Schools to bring back chocolate milk

NIAGARA FALLS — Chocolate milk is on its way back onto lunchroom menus in the city’s public schools — thanks largely to the work of one student, Dominic Daoust.

Daoust, a senior at Niagara Falls High School, told the School Board last month that the vitamins and nutrients in chocolate milk match those in reduced-fat white milk and the flavoring in chocolate milk is insufficient to cause any significant increase in obesity.

He cited research suggesting that chocolate milk has little or no adverse effect on health.

“A container of chocolate milk that a student drinks is more nutritious than a container of reduced- fat white milk that the student throws away,” Daoust told the board.

He gave the board a petition with nearly 1,000 signatures asking for a return of chocolate milk to school cafeterias.

After a few days to digest the student’s presentation, School Superintendent Cynthia A. Bianco decided this week to bring back chocolate milk.

“Chocolate milk has been ordered and will be restored to school kitchens as soon as possible,” Bianco said in a letter to Daoust.

The superintendent’s letter congratulated Daoust “on your fine presentation to the Board of Education.”

“Your research, remarks, poise and initiative in getting 1,000 signatories to your petition show drive, organization and determination,” she wrote. “They also show you have received a fine education in the Niagara Falls City School District.”

About 20 students in the audience at the board meeting on Oct. 20 applauded vigorously when Daoust finished his presentation and handed the petition to members of the board.

“The removal of chocolate milk was due to an abundance of caution in safeguarding students’ health and an effort to provide only the healthiest choices of meals in the schools,” Bianco wrote. “However, Mr. Daoust, you have convinced me. I am satisfied that chocolate milk will not be the downfall of public health.”

She also told Daoust, “You may have a promising career ahead in community organizing and public service.”

She wished him good luck and thanked him for bringing his concern to the attention of the board.

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• 

Post-Workout Chocolate Milk?

To get the best results from your training, ensure that your post-workout drink or meal is up to par. After your workout, your body is most receptive to using amino acids to repair muscle tissue, while using carbohydrates to restore muscle glycogen.

One of the best post-workout options is chocolate milk. Most prepared chocolate milk beverages are made with 1% or 2% milk, but you could also create your own fat-free chocolate milk by adding some chocolate syrup to regular skim milk. This will provide you with the benefits of carbohydrates, while giving you the optimal protein source found in milk.

Do make note, though, that different brands will vary in total calorie content, so even across the 1% varieties, the fat content may be the same, but total calorie content (typically ranging from 90 to 200 per 250 ml) will differ.

Here’s why post-workout chocolate milk tops the list when it comes to fueling yourself after a hard session at the gym.

Protein Content

Post-workout chocolate milk is beneficial because of its protein content. Every cup contains between eight and 11 grams of protein, with the Clover and Bravo Foods brands containing the most. Ideally, you’ll want to consume between 15 and 25 grams of protein after a workout, which equates to 500 to 750 ml of chocolate milk.

Also, a study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that, when taken immediately after exercise, milk-based proteins promote greater muscle protein synthesis than soy-based proteins.

Finally, another reason why post-workout chocolate milk is beneficial is because cow’s milk contains about 80 percent casein protein content and 20 percent whey protein content. This is ideal because the whey protein is fast-acting, allowing amino acids to get right into the muscle tissue, while the casein protein is digested slower, providing a steady stream of amino acids over a lengthier period of time.

Carbohydrate Content

Turning to post-workout chocolate milk immediately following your lifting sessions is a smart move because of the types of carbohydrates it provides. The total carbohydrate count will vary depending upon the brand you choose, with most coming in around 20 to 25 grams of carbohydrates. The highest carb count is found in Hershey’s 2% Chocolate Milk, which rings in at 31 grams, while Hood’s Calorie Countdown 2% Chocolate Milk has the lowest carb count (5 grams).

This sugar will cause a spike in insulin levels, driving the glucose molecules into the muscle tissue and replenishing the energy stores for your next workout. Without this insulin spike, you’re going to be looking at a slower recovery period, which could mean more time out of the gym.

A study by the International Journal of Sports Nutrition had subjects perform three interval-style, exhaustion workout sessions on separate days, and then monitored the recovery that was demonstrated. The subjects consumed either chocolate milk or a carbohydrate replacement fluid post-workout.

_________________________________________________________________________

What To Eat Drink Before After Workouts 

Amino Acids 

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Chocolate Milk

It was seen that after the recovery period was over, those who were drinking post-workout chocolate milk showed enhanced performance between the interval sessions, indicating that the carbohydrates in chocolate milk were doing a better job in recovery than the carbohydrates in the replacement beverage.

Calcium Content

Finally, drinking post-workout chocolate milk is a smart move because of its calcium content. Calcium is one of the minerals that plays a critical role in the “power stroke” – when the individual muscle fibers generate tension through a cross-bridge cycling pattern, causing contraction to take place. The calcium ions are what bind to the plasma membrane and send one of the first signals to stimulate the power stroke. So, without enough calcium ions in the body, this process will not take place optimally.

By drinking post-workout chocolate milk you will increase your daily calcium intake, and increase the likelihood of an optimal power stroke. Most brands average between 300 and 400 mg of calcium, but if you opt for Hershey’s Chocolate Milk, you’ll get 500 mg per cup.

Milk it

Chocolate milk has a bad rep for being full of sugar, but perception is quickly changing and people are turning to it after their workout sessions. So, there’s no need to spend tons of money on mixing up some fancy post-workout beverage – consider using simple chocolate milk instead.

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Chocolate Milk Serves Up A Needed School Lunch Debate

Really, I get it, I do. Chocolate milk is a lot healthier than soft drinks — but still, does chocolate milk truly have a place in school lunches?

At least in my house, chocolate milk is considered a treat because, well, it has chocolate in it. If the kids want to drink something, I prefer that they choose the plain, ole white milk.

Recently, a California school board has received a request from parents to pull chocolate milk from the lunch menu. They charge that the added sugar in chocolate milk contributes to childhood obesity.

I think it’s finally time that someone is cracking down on the health of school lunches. It’s not like school lunches are as bad as going to a fast-food restaurant, but for whatever reason, I believe they should provide the best of the best nutrition available to children. Maybe it’s because I try hard at every meal and snack to give my kids tasty, healthy food. Or that an increasing number of children in the United States don’t get wholesome meals at home, whether it’s because their parents don’t care or — I hope it to be more likely — can’t afford the price of good nutrition. We all know that the cheapest foods in the grocery store are not the healthiest, but with the economic issues of the past several years and parents’ struggles to stay within their spending limits, sometimes all they can afford is those nutrient-lacking foods.

I guess, however, the dairy industry — as well as some nutritionists, which does surprise me a bit — is all up in arms over this parental request to remove chocolate milk from the lunch menu. The concern is that without chocolate milk in schools, milk consumption drops dramatically: around 37 percent. Obviously, that would be a concern for the dairy industry, although really, should we put money ahead of health?

But what about the nutritionists, what’s their reason for worry? They say that milk is a child’s main food source for calcium, Vitamin D, and potassium, and that without the chocolate in it, kids won’t drink it. For this reason, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Dietetic Association agree that the value of chocolate milk outweighs the added sugar. In fact, according to these groups, flavored milks account for only 3 percent of total added sugars in children’s diets; the primary source is soft drinks.

The school board should honor the parents’ request. Sure, fewer children will be choosing milk to drink — bummer for the dairy industry — but I don’t think that offering chocolate milk just because kids would rather have the sugary milk as to the white milk is a good enough justification. It’s akin to letting your child eat ice cream instead of drinking milk at supper, because at least he’s getting milk’s nutrition, no matter how much added sugar there is in the ice cream. And, yes, I know that chocolate milk is not the same as ice cream, but hopefully you get my point. The deeper issue here is the message being sent to kids: that sugar has to be added to healthy foods in order to make them taste good. Sugar is addicting, especially for children, and if they eat sugar in and on everything, they lose appreciation for naturally sweet, but much healthier, food choices like fruit and, in this case, milk. Allowing chocolate milk because it tastes better doesn’t help children learn to choose and eat healthy foods. It teaches them that flavor trumps nutrition, and if they haven’t already, they’ll be more tempted to graduate to more unhealthy food choices, like soft drinks, because well, it tastes better.

And wouldn’t it be better for the dairy industry, in the long run, if we all focused more on nutritious eating — think generations of people choosing to drink milk over soft drinks long into their adult years — rather than worry about the shorter term effects of removing chocolate milk from school lunches? For long-term sustainability of the dairy industry — meaning that the industry will be able to survive economically, without increasing government subsidies — producers and milk processors need to focus on the bigger picture: what changes in policy can be done to attract more people to choose dairy products now and in the future? Embracing a healthier take on food consumption, partnering with growers of fruits and vegetables and other unprocessed foods, will get the dairy industry farther in terms of long-range profitability than will arguing how chocolate milk is the lesser of the two evils.

 

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Chocolate milk debate rages

PADUCAH — Chocolate milk, that sweet childhood pleasure, has become the center of an intense health debate.

Some health experts believe it contributes to childhood obesity leading many school districts to place limits on its sale or ban it outright.

But many doctors and nutritionists say leaving it off the menu deprives children of valuable nutrients they aren’t likely to make up elsewhere.

Not only are parents left wondering whether it’s okay for their kids to drink it or not, but kids are asking questions, too.

It’s a sweet treat that most any kid enjoys, including the students at Lone Oak High School.

“They want their milk,” said Marlene McCustion, cafeteria manager. “We go through about 500 cartons of milk a day.”

McCustion said her students are about evenly divided between white and chocolate milk. But across the nation, flavored milk accounts for nearly 70 percent of the milk sold in schools.

The problem isn’t the chocolate. The problem is the sugar that comes with it. So said Lone Oak 5th grader Brandon Ibata.

“I noticed that I’m gaining a bit of a belly now that I’ve discovered chocolate milk,” Brandon said. “Chocolate milk is so sweet and now normal milk tastes weird to me.”

Brandon wrote a letter to the district after watching Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution.

“When I first tasted it, it tasted pretty good,” he said. “Now I feel like I can’t let it go.”

So, he wants the school to let it go so he’s not tempted.

“That’s what I’m trying to do, trying to make no chocolate milk,” Brandon said.

But that might not be the answer either. According to the milk industry, overall milk consumption drops 35 percent when flavored milks are removed, taking the other health benefits with them.

“They’re going to lose all those vitamins and essential nutrients that they need in that product,” said Mary Sanderson, food service director. “We want the children to drink milk because of all of the good essential nutrients that are in the milk. It’s just better than some of the other options that they might have.”

But Brandon said that won’t stop him from trying to ban the sugary drink.

“I’m going to keep trying until I get my goal,” he said.

Only a few school districts ban flavored milk all together, including Boulder Valley, Colorado, Los Angeles, California, Washington D.C. and the state of Massachusetts.