School Bans On Chocolate Milk May Backfire

THURSDAY, April 17, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- Banning chocolate milk from schools may sound like a good move for kids' health, but efforts to do so haven't turned out that way, a small study found.

Bans on chocolate milk in 11 Oregon elementary schools were linked to a big drop in the amount of healthy, fat-free white milk students drank, a team of Cornell University researchers reports.

Nicole Zammit, former assistant director of nutrition services at the Eugene School District in Oregon, wasn't surprised by the findings.

"Given that the role of the federal school meal program is to provide nutritious meals to students who may otherwise have no access to healthy foods, I wouldn't recommend banning flavored milk unless you have a comprehensive plan in place to compensate for the lost nutrients when kids stop drinking milk altogether," she said in a Cornell news release.

In the study, researchers analyzed data from 11 Oregon elementary schools that outlawed chocolate milk and replaced it with skim milk. While the bans meant children could no longer get the added sugar found in chocolate milk, there were unexpected consequences.

Total milk sales at the schools fell by 10 percent, the study showed, and students ended up wasting 29 percent more milk than before. And while the students consumed less sugar and fewer calories, their intake of calcium and protein also fell.

After the chocolate milk bans took effect, there was a also 7 percent decrease in the number of students taking part in the Eugene School District's lunch program, according to the researchers at Cornell University's Center for Behavioral Economics in Child Nutrition Programs.

"There are other ways to encourage kids to select white milk without banning the chocolate," study co-author Brian Wansink, director of the Cornell Food and Brand Lab, said in the news release.

"Make white milk appear more convenient and more normal to select," he said. "Two quick and easy solutions are: Put the white milk in the front of the cooler and make sure that at least 1/3 to 1/2 of all the milk is white."

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is that how fat we have become? Banning chocolate milk?

american schools even serving milk of any kind is a shock to me

I'm conjecturing, not stating fact here, so please don't jump all over me if I'm wrong.

But is the chocolate milk offerred children with school lunches that much worse nutritionally than regular 2%?

Minimal jump in calories, same nutrients, minimal caffeine. Probably less sugar than most juice.

Ironically, that sugar is probably what's keeping the kids awake during class.

Whole milk (which I assume was the kind of milk used in the chocolate milk) contains quite alot of calories. For a nation trying to lower it's obesity rate, it just surprised me they would even serve this, let alone chocolate milk. I'm aware of the nutritional values, but they're likely having a good amount for breakfast anyway. Milk was never served in any school I went to, and money wasn't the reason.

Whole milk (which I assume was the kind of milk used in the chocolate milk) contains quite alot of calories. For a nation trying to lower it's obesity rate, it just surprised me they would even serve this, let alone chocolate milk. I'm aware of the nutritional values, but they're likely having a good amount for breakfast anyway.

Milk was never served in any school I went to, and money wasn't the reason.

Well, in fairness, there are health benefits.

But there are also a bunch of calories and those nutrients could readily be obtained in other ways.

Free breakfast in my schools was milk plus a syrupy, sugary cinnamon twist thing. It tasted like the 'beetus.

Whole milk (which I assume was the kind of milk used in the chocolate milk) contains quite alot of calories. For a nation trying to lower it's obesity rate, it just surprised me they would even serve this, let alone chocolate milk. I'm aware of the nutritional values, but they're likely having a good amount for breakfast anyway.

Milk was never served in any school I went to, and money wasn't the reason.

My wife recently became a CMA, and during her orientation for her new job, she was told that the healthcare company she works for does volunteer work preparing food packs for school kids that have no money. The packs tend to contain boxes of food rather than individual servings, because typically if the kid doesn't have their own food or money to buy it, their family is usually suffering also.

You'd be surprised at the number of kids who don't have their own food to take to school, and even more surprised to know that the food given to them at school is the only food they eat all day - because their families can't afford to feed them.

why?

Whole milk (which I assume was the kind of milk used in the chocolate milk) contains quite alot of calories. For a nation trying to lower it's obesity rate, it just surprised me they would even serve this, let alone chocolate milk. I'm aware of the nutritional values, but they're likely having a good amount for breakfast anyway. Milk was never served in any school I went to, and money wasn't the reason.

I probably wouldn't be too surprised, as I was part of some of those programs when I was very young (raised by a single mother who didn't start making decent money until I was older) so I happened to know some of the others that were poor as dirt as well, granted I actually ate 3 meals a day, and we had food at home, but not all of them did, even though our families were in a similar bracket, some of those families had more than 2 children, mine was just my sister and I.

Well, as someone not from USA, it's generally hard to envision American families being that poor.

That's why it was such a big shock to the rest of the western world when Katrina hit, and the plight of New Orleans was in the global headlines. There is this general belief that America is just overflowing with cash and everyone lives comfortably.

Well, as someone not from USA, it's generally hard to envision American families being that poor.

That's why it was such a big shock to the rest of the western world when Katrina hit, and the plight of New Orleans was in the global headlines. There is this general belief that America is just overflowing with cash and everyone lives comfortably.