Page 95 - Summer 2019 Journal

A Campaign for Real Milk FLAVORED MILKS: HOW LOW CAN YOU GO?
By Sally Fallon Morell
Flavored milks are highly sweetened bever- ages made with powdered skim milk—they are actually the dairy industry’s way of getting rid of all the skim milk left over from the produc- tion of butter and cream, mostly for ice cream. Since Americans are huge ice cream eaters (and since Americans are eating more butter these days), there’s an enormous amount of this waste product that the industry needs to get rid of.
With the advent of modern industrial ag- riculture, which separates all the farm animal species into confinement facilities, it’s no longer possible for the farmer to give his leftover skim milk to his pigs after sending his cream to the dairy factory. So what better thing to do with this lowfat waste product than feed it to children!
Because of USDA dietary guidelines, school children are not allowed to have whole milk at lunchtime—the kind of milk they need to grow normally. Instead their choices are limited to lowfat and flavored milk beverages in chocolate and strawberry flavors. These beverages contain more sugar than sodas! School students choose chocolate milk over plain milk two to one, and there are reports of children in the breakfast programs putting chocolate milk on their cereal!
Thanks to the efforts of Jamie Oliver, host of Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, plus input from thousands of concerned parents, many schools dropped the flavored milk offering. Be- cause the kids hate the watery plain lowfat milk, they ended up not drinking milk, and the dairy industry was not pleased, especially as some policymakers began calling for the introduction of full-fat milk at school lunches.
What? Give valuable butterfat to growing children? That would be terrible for the bottom line. So the industry increased their lobbying efforts for flavored milks. I receive the American Dairy Association North East Dairy Promotion
News, and this issue featured an article entitled “Checkoff Reinforces Importance of Offer- ing Flavored Milk in Schools.” According to the article, “In response to recent changes in nutritional guidelines allowing schools greater flexibility in meeting nutrition requirements, ADA North East distributed informational kits to 1,600 school districts about the importance of offering lowfat flavored milk to students.” The promotional kits included a flyer with “five reasons flavored milk is nutritious and appeal- ing to schools and students alike,” and a mouse pad featuring chocolate, strawberry and white milk logos. The campaign seems to be work- ing. “Many schools have already reintroduced flavored milk thanks to support from local dairy farmers and cooperatives.”
A few years ago, when researching the subject of flavored milk for a presentation on school lunches, I was astounded to find three web pages dedicated to hawking flavored milk. Typical arguments go like this: “Flavored milk is a terrific way for kids, teens and adults to enjoy milk and get the same nine essential nu- trients found in milk—nutrients that can help kids grow into strong and healthy adults.
“Milk, including flavored, is the number- one food source of three of the four nutrients the Dietary Guidelines for Americans say both adults and children need to consume more of— vitamin D, calcium and potassium.
“Research shows that children who drink flavored milk drink more milk overall, have better quality diets, do not consume more added sugar or fat and are just as likely to be at a healthy weight compared to kids who do not consume flavored milk. In fact, flavored milk contributes only 4% of the added sugars to children’s diets ages 2-18, while soft drinks and non-carbonated sweetened beverages contribute
Wise Traditions 93
A Campaign for Real Milk is a project of the Weston A. Price Foundation. To obtain our informative Real Milk brochures, contact the Foundation at (202) 363-4394. Check out our website, RealMilk.com for additional information and sources of Real Milk products.
SUMMER2019