School Kids Can Have Chocolate Milk Again

Like many foods—real butter, anyone?—chocolate milk's fortunes take risen and fallen over time.

Citing concerns over babyhood obesity, some school districts—from the District of Columbia in 2010 to Tempe, Ariz. just this school year—accept taken the frequently controversial stride to ban chocolate and other flavored milk from their schools.

But some districts are reintroducing chocolate milk back into their cafeterias.

The New Oasis school lath in Connecticut voted at the end of November to reverse the district's 2011 ban on chocolate milk. At the start of this school year, the Mount Vernon Schoolhouse District in Washington land put chocolate milk back on the menu five days a week later on 12 years of simply offering it on Fridays. The Los Angeles Unified School district opted to pull back its prohibition in 2016.

One large concern is that when kids pass on milk, they're also passing on an important source of vitamins and minerals, such as vitamin D and calcium.

The other issue, cited by the New Haven, Mount Vernon, and Los Angeles districts, is food waste. In the words of the Los Angeles Times, schools at that place were tossing out an "obscene" amount of nutrient, much of it manifestly milk.

The New Oasis school district has non completely reversed its ban. The commune is allowing chocolate milk back into high school lunch periods only twice a calendar week as part of a half-dozen-month pilot, according to the New Haven Independent. The school lath'due south non-voting student representative backed the measure, while the board'due south secretarial assistant—who is likewise a pediatrician—voted to maintain the ban.

This tug-o-state of war over chocolate milk isn't confined to commune-level politics, information technology'southward been happening at the federal level, too. In 2012, the Obama administration rolled out stricter requirements for federally-subsidized school meals, including a rule that all flavored milk had to be fatty free.

That rule was reversed by the Trump assistants last year.

Should Schools Ban Chocolate Milk?

So, is it amend for students to drink chocolate milk than no milk at all?

The School Diet Association, the Found of Medicine, and the American Academy of Pediatrics all support offer chocolate milk in schools, but their reasoning is tactical: flavoring is a useful style to become students to potable plenty milk, as well as the important nutrients that comes with information technology. Well-nigh milk consumed in school is flavored, co-ordinate to the American Academy of Pediatrics, and it's still healthier than many other surgery drinks.

The Trump Administration echoed that argument in its decision to relax some of the Obama-era regulations on school meals. In addition to allowing depression-fat flavored milk, the new rules also eased requirements for sodium and whole grains in schoolhouse meals served through federal programs.

Equally U.South. Secretary of Agronomics Sonny Perdue tweeted when his agency published it's final rule alter in December last year: "Nutritious school meals don't do anyone whatsoever expert if kids just throw them into the trash."

The American Academy of Pediatrics does, however, says that flavored milk should be avoided for children under the historic period of five.

But not all pediatricians and health experts are on board with this lesser-of-two-evils reasoning, saying that avoiding sugary drinks is the best mode to foreclose childhood obesity.

This split amid experts helps fuel what oft turns out to exist highly charged debates over chocolate and flavored milk in schools.

Despite pushback, flavored milk remains a mainstay in most schools. Almost 80 percent of school districts offer flavored milk in their cafeterias, according to the Schoolhouse Nutrition Association's 2018 survey of its members. That's dorsum up to 2014 levels after a dip in 2016 when 70 percent of districts reported serving flavored milk.

And just equally chocolate milk doesn't appear to be going anywhere anytime soon, neither does the contend: New York City is currently considering banning the drink from its schools.

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• Trump Official Defends Program Affecting School Meals to Skeptical Democrats

Image: Getty

Arianna Prothero

Arianna Prothero is a reporter at Educational activity Week who covers students and their well-existence.

A version of this news article first appeared in the Rules for Engagement web log.

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Source: https://www.edweek.org/leadership/why-schools-that-banned-chocolate-milk-are-bringing-it-back/2019/12

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