Pro

“[T]he allegation that flavored milk contributes to obesity is factually incorrect. The opposite is actually the case: milk drinkers, even those that consume flavored milk, tend to weigh less, not more. According to a study published in 2008 in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, kids who drank milk were less likely to be overweight. This finding holds true no matter which flavor of milk kids consumed.

Schools that have removed flavored milk have seen a sharp decline in milk consumption, which is bad news for kids’ nutrition since milk contains nine essential nutrients and three nutrients that American children tend to under-consume: calcium, potassium and vitamin D… total milk consumption dropped an average of 35 percent when flavored milk was eliminated. Consumption dropped because fewer students were selecting milk and more milk was thrown away…

Some argue that the nutrients lost when kids stop drinking milk can be replaced by other food sources. But to replace all the nutrients from one serving of flavored milk, schools would need to provide two ounces of cheese, one medium egg, one cup of fortified orange juice and a half cantaloupe over the course of a week. That adds up to a lot of extra calories and cost!

Eliminating excess sugar from kids’ diets is a worthwhile goal. The added sugar in flavored milk is miniscule (less than 3% of a kid’s daily sugar intake). We need to place the focus on what makes the most difference to a child’s overall health. Flavored milk offers a practical way of ensuring that kids get all the nutrients they need, even if it takes a few more grams of sugar to do it.”

Sep. 20, 2018