Chocolate Milk is Soda in Drag

Some school dis­tricts have gone as far as pro­hibit­ing fla­vored milk, and Florida con­sid­ered a statewide ban in schools. Other dis­tricts have sought a mid­dle ground by replac­ing fla­vored milks con­tain­ing high-fructose corn syrup with ver­sions con­tain­ing sugar, which some see as a more nat­ural sweetener.

Los Angeles Unified, the nation’s second-largest school dis­trict, is the lat­est dis­trict to tackle the issue. Superintendent John Deasy recently announced he would push this sum­mer to remove choco­late and straw­berry milk from school menus.

But nutritionists—and parents—are split over whether bans make sense, espe­cially when about 70 per­cent of milk con­sumed in schools is fla­vored, mostly choco­late, accord­ing to the industry-backed Milk Processors Education Program.

Many, includ­ing the School Nutrition Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Dietetic Association, American Heart Association, and National Medical Association, argue that the nutri­tional value of fla­vored low-fat or skim milk out­weighs the harm of added sugar. Milk con­tains nine essen­tial nutri­ents includ­ing cal­cium, vit­a­min D and protein.

A joint state­ment from those groups points to stud­ies that show kids who drink fat-free, fla­vored milk meet more of their nutri­ent needs and are not heav­ier than non-milk drinkers.

“Chocolate milk has been unfairly pegged as one of the causes of obe­sity,” said Julie Buric, vice pres­i­dent of mar­ket­ing for the Milk Processors Education Program.

Others note the nation’s child obe­sity epi­demic and say fla­vored milk sim­ply needs to go.

Eight ounces of white milk served in Los Angeles pub­lic schools con­tains 14 grams of nat­ural sugar or lac­tose; fat-free choco­late milk has an extra six grams of sugar for a total of 20 grams, while fat-free straw­berry milk has a total of 27 grams – the same as eight ounces of Coca-Cola.

“Chocolate milk is soda in drag,” said Ann Cooper, direc­tor of nutri­tion ser­vices for the Boulder Valley School District in Louisville, Colo., which has banned fla­vored milk. “It works as a treat in homes, but it doesn’t belong in schools.”

Flavored milk is also a tar­get of British TV chef Jamie Oliver, who has made revamp­ing school food a sig­na­ture cause.

For a seg­ment to be aired on his “Food Revolution” TV show, he recently filled a school bus with white sand to rep­re­sent the amount of sugar Los Angeles Unified school chil­dren con­sume weekly in fla­vored milk.

“If you have fla­vored milk, that’s candy,” he told The Associated Press.

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