I used to like Jamie Oliver. Maybe I will again. But since he convinced the Los Angeles Unified School District to ban flavored milk based on its "high sugar content," I officially think he's a complete idiot. This is why: Oliver went out of his way to demonstrate the evils of chocolate and strawberry milk on his ABC show Food Revolution by filling an entire school bus with sand and likening the vast quantity to the amount of added sugar LA students consume every year in flavored milk alone, one serving of which apparently has the same amount of sugar as a candy bar (between 20 and 27 grams). But guess what? The fruit juice served by the same school cafeterias contains 27 to 29 grams of sugar, and nobody's banning those bevvies.
Even weirder, while I've never heard a pediatrician encourage parents to give their kids juice (unless it's fresh squeezed or has medicine hidden in it or something), I have heard many pediatricians encourage parents to resort to flavored milk if it's the only way they can get their kids to drink milk at all. That would be because milk has very helpful things in it like calcium and protein, while the average juice box packs all the calories of flavored milk but next to no nutritional punch. So, which is the drink that's supposedly contributing to our country's childhood obesity epidemic?
Well, in my opinion, neither. Here's a newsflash nobody is going to like hearing: Apple juice and chocolate milk aren't making your kids fat! If that were the case, kids would have been developing diabetes en masse way before now. Think about what people ate in the 1950s! Meatloaf, Wonder Bread, root beer floats. We weren't a nation of fatties then. What gives?
I'm not pretending to have all the answers. I can't tell you how we should tackle this country's current health crisis. But I can tell you, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that turning flavored milk into contraband ain't gonna do it.
Do you think the ban on flavored milk in schools is crazy?
Image via edenpictures/Flickr
This Hot Dad Wants to Do Your Ironing
KStew Refuses to Shower
This Hot Dad Wants to Cook You Dinner
This Hot Dad Cooks AND Does the Dishes
Comments 37
Not pissy about it... children at school should be given milk and water. That is all they need. He's right- we do drink FAR too much sugars, and I in no way support giving kids juice at school either. Kids should be encouraged to drink and need water.
i don't agree with you, our school served flavored milks and regular milks but no juices. if they do take out flavored milks i think it will help the sugar intake. we drink and eat far too many sugars and processed foods in our lives. looking back at the 50's there was a better family dynamic, fewer processed foods, more outside time, and mom's that mostly stayed at home to cook for their children. and i don't even understand how it affects you "negatively" unless you are still in school.
Just because something else is worse doesn't mean that a bad thing is acceptable.
I've seen the crappy juice that the feds allow the schools to count as fruit (that's the real problem not the juice but that juice = fruit in the eyes of the feds) and I wouldn't want my child drinking it on a daily basis. However, just because kids are being served other bad things doesn't mean that chocolate milk is suddenly great for kids to drink on a daily basis.
Kids shouldn't be given anything to drink at school but milk or water. If tax dollars are paying for these beverages as part of a nutrition prgram then they should be either milk or water.
I love Jamie Oliver! Even more so for banning flavored milk. Children do not NEED milk so there is no reason to load them up with milk loaded with sugar. Although I do agree with you, i would get rid of the juices too. Offer only water and 2% or less fat white milk. That's all my son drinks and if I can help it, that's all he will drink. No reason for all the other stuff.
How about putting LESS sugar on the milk or diluting the sweetness of it with more milk? He didn't have to ban it. I usually find myself diluting milk or juice. they are outrageously sweet.