Maybe I missed something- no chocolate milk in schools?

Pinkranger626

So the trending topic in my area (CT) for the last few days is how they are removing chocolate milk from school lunches across the state. I have yet to hear what their reasoning is.... just that it's most likely going to happen. I even heard a radio station say that parents will be happy about it. I'm sorry, did I miss something? Compared to a lot of the food that they're serving to children in these school cafeterias chocolate milk is the least of their problems. I would love to hear WHY it's being removed.... personally, I don't find anything wrong with chocolate milk. I actually drink it as part of recovery from my workouts.

Miss_XVX

As I am not a citizen of the United States, I needed to read some articles about this topic. I clearly understand that they intend to reduce the amount of sugar that kids consume on a daily basis.

But what I found rather shocking was the report of a school teacher in which she said that many kids use to throw away their vegetables and "real" food. She compared days when hamburgers, fries and similar stuff was served with days when carrots and other vegetables were on the menue. While they need two trashcans on hamburger days they need up to ten trashcans on the other days.

I have also seen a documentation about school dinner in the UK where kids literally erupted in tantrums because they were offered vegetables instead of fries.

And I think that is what's going wrong. Chocolate milk won't do any harm to kids with a healthy nutrition.

corgicake

Probably because chocolate milk = more calories. Never mind that last I heard school lunches in the US had a calorie minimum... no, that was not a typo.

_JPunky

Probably because chocolate milk = more calories. Never mind that last I heard school lunches in the US had a calorie minimum... no, that was not a typo.

I agree that we need to teach our kids to eat healthy and make smart food choices, but I would assume that the reason that there is a calorie minimum is because these are growing children that don't need to be on "diets".

Also, there are a lot of areas in the US where the poverty level is high and that school lunch is the only meal a child is getting every day.

Put into that perspective, I don't think the calorie minimum is the problem.

aribugg

Maybe they dont have it anymore, or maybe the kids just dont care, but when i was a little kid there was a giant colorful nutrition triangle posted on every wall of the lunchroom. we were taught nothing about calories, but i remember one day we had a guest speaker come in and teach about what our body needs. maybe with the educational cut backs, things like this dont happen anymore. but its still not in our schools hands to teach the children these things, it's what happens at home.

rml_16

It's because of the sugar.

I don't know how many parents are actually happy about it, though. I have an acquaintance who's super crazy about this kind of thing and she posted on FB about wanting other parents to join her crusade against flavored milk in schools. Every single person who commented on her post basically told her to get bent.

Galatea_Stone

Probably because chocolate milk = more calories. Never mind that last I heard school lunches in the US had a calorie minimum... no, that was not a typo.

Of course there's a calorie minimum. It would be awful if they weren't being served enough food. What part of that do you find funny?

I agree. It isn't funny in the slightest. There was a trend in several school districts in 2012 to cut the calories in school lunches based on USDA recommendations, and it backfired. The lunches served were NOT enough to sustain growing kids. Yes, there's obesity here, but there are also plenty of active kids who benefit from the added calories. Athletes, for example, could easily need 5000 calories a day in their teens. a 600 calorie school lunch isn't going to do anything for them.

ILiftHeavyAcrylics

As I am not a citizen of the United States, I needed to read some articles about this topic. I clearly understand that they intend to reduce the amount of sugar that kids consume on a daily basis.

But what I found rather shocking was the report of a school teacher in which she said that many kids use to throw away their vegetables and "real" food. She compared days when hamburgers, fries and similar stuff was served with days when carrots and other vegetables were on the menue. While they need two trashcans on hamburger days they need up to ten trashcans on the other days.

I have also seen a documentation about school dinner in the UK where kids literally erupted in tantrums because they were offered vegetables instead of fries.

And I think that is what's going wrong. Chocolate milk won't do any harm to kids with a healthy nutrition.

It's partly because the veggies look like death on a plate.

But yes, my experience standing lunch duty backs up what you've read.

ILiftHeavyAcrylics

Probably because chocolate milk = more calories. Never mind that last I heard school lunches in the US had a calorie minimum... no, that was not a typo.

Of course there's a calorie minimum. It would be awful if they weren't being served enough food. What part of that do you find funny?

I agree. It isn't funny in the slightest. There was a trend in several school districts in 2012 to cut the calories in school lunches based on USDA recommendations, and it backfired. The lunches served were NOT enough to sustain growing kids. Yes, there's obesity here, but there are also plenty of active kids who benefit from the added calories. Athletes, for example, could easily need 5000 calories a day in their teens. a 600 calorie school lunch isn't going to do anything for them.

And in many poverty-stricken areas (like where I taught in rural Arkansas) school breakfast and school lunch are the only meals a lot of kids get. We'd catch tons of kids stealing extra milk to take home with them.

gypsy_spirit

Mmmmmmmmmmmmm, chocolate milk.

atsteele

Removing chocolate milk as an option is idiotic. Now those kids who would only drink chocolate milk won't drink anything. Did you know that the student HAS to pick up a milk product (even if they are lactose intolerant) when they buy the school lunch? So not only will kids not drink the milk but it will be wasted as well. Good job, government officials!!

atsteele

Probably because chocolate milk = more calories. Never mind that last I heard school lunches in the US had a calorie minimum... no, that was not a typo.

Of course there's a calorie minimum. It would be awful if they weren't being served enough food. What part of that do you find funny?

I agree. It isn't funny in the slightest. There was a trend in several school districts in 2012 to cut the calories in school lunches based on USDA recommendations, and it backfired. The lunches served were NOT enough to sustain growing kids. Yes, there's obesity here, but there are also plenty of active kids who benefit from the added calories. Athletes, for example, could easily need 5000 calories a day in their teens. a 600 calorie school lunch isn't going to do anything for them.

And in many poverty-stricken areas (like where I taught in rural Arkansas) school breakfast and school lunch are the only meals a lot of kids get. We'd catch tons of kids stealing extra milk to take home with them.

Omgosh! This is so sad.

bravid98

My kids don't like the food they serve in their elementary school so they pack everyday. It's nice actually because we can make sure they are getting a nutritious meal and not get the chocolate milk (loaded w/ sugar).

Back when I was in school it wasn't cool to pack your lunch, but thankfully that seems to have passed.

bravid98

And in many poverty-stricken areas (like where I taught in rural Arkansas) school breakfast and school lunch are the only meals a lot of kids get. We'd catch tons of kids stealing extra milk to take home with them.

Omgosh! This is so sad.

In the district next to us one of the elementary schools sends dinner home with kids who don't get enough food at home. Churches and donations help keep the program going.

atsteele

And in many poverty-stricken areas (like where I taught in rural Arkansas) school breakfast and school lunch are the only meals a lot of kids get. We'd catch tons of kids stealing extra milk to take home with them.

Omgosh! This is so sad.

In the district next to us one of the elementary schools sends dinner home with kids who don't get enough food at home. Churches and donations help keep the program going.

That's awesome!! In America, in the land of plenty, there shouldn't be one kid who goes hungry.

nilbogger

I'm also in CT and from what I've seen on Facebook a lot of parents are really butthurt about it.

I don't see the problem. In my opinion chocolate milk should be a treat, not something you have with lunch every day. If your kids refuse to drink anything else that's due to lazy parenting, isn't it? And of course you can give them a nice, big glass of chocolate milk when they get home if you like.

I'm pretty surprised that people are blaming the schools for the fact that their kids are throwing away perfectly good food.

Platform_Heels

Probably because chocolate milk = more calories. Never mind that last I heard school lunches in the US had a calorie minimum... no, that was not a typo.

That's just it though. There's not a ton more calories in Chocolate milk. Fat Free TrueMoo brand has 120 calories. The "low fat" version has 140. Regular milk has 110 calories so it's not a significant difference.

Their reasoning (I'm from CT also) is that there is a lot of SODIUM (?) and HFCS in it which I personally stay away from HFCS but again there are brands (TrueMoo) that uses cocoa and regular sugar. The state will get money if they take out the chocolate milk which is a joke because that money will go right back into their own pockets instead of going towards things like, oh say fixing the road situation? They actually put up ROAD CLOSED LOCAL TRAFFIC ONLY signs on one of the roads that leads to my house because they don't want to fill in the pot holes!

But any way, what they fail to realize is that taking out the chocolate milk isn't going to fix the obesity problem and they will end up wasting money on regular milk because the kids who preferred the chocolate won't drink it. But you will have our dumbass lawmakers backing our useless Governor and get this ridiculous law on the books.

nilbogger

I always chuckle to myself at a generation of kids raised on chocolate milk in schools, now banning it for their own kids.

I used to drink chocolate milk with my lunch fairly often when I was in elemntary school. I had no idea how much sugar was in it. I assumed it was healthy because the school was serving it.

StraubreyR

Surprisingly, the reason it is going to fall under the ban is the added sodium. The bill restricts the sodium content of foods served, and chocolate milk happens to have enough added sodium to fall under the ban. Apparently, it was a last minute bill with unintended consequences.