Flavored Milk Banned In LA Schools

LOS ANGELES -- The Los Angeles Unified School District is taking a stand against child obesity, becoming the nation's largest school system to stop serving sugar-laden flavored milk.

The school board on Tuesday voted to eliminate chocolate and strawberry milk from schools as of July 1.

LAUSD joins a growing number of school districts nationwide, including in the District of Columbia, Boulder Valley, Colo., and Berkeley, Calif., that serve only plain milk because of the added sugar contained in flavored versions.

The proposal by Superintendent John Deasy came after popular British TV chef Jamie Oliver criticized the district in recent months for serving flavored milks, saying they contain the sugar equivalent of a candy bar.

In one stunt on his ABC show "Food Revolution," he filled a school bus with sand to represent the amount of added sugar LAUSD students consume in a year through flavored milk.

Some board members were rankled by the perception that the district was caving in to Oliver, who unsuccessfully lobbied the district to be allowed to film in local schools.

"I really don't understand why we're letting a TV chef dictate our policy," said board member Tamar Galatzan, who noted that many health advocates including the American Heart Association say the nutritional benefits of flavored milk outweigh the harm of added sugar.

Some advocates say that milk consumption drops when children are not offered the option of chocolate and other flavors.

She noted the district serves fruit juices containing 27 to 29 grams of sugar per serving, more than the amount of sugar in flavored milk – 20 grams in 8 ounces of fat-free chocolate milk and 27 grams in fat-free strawberry.

Galatzan was the lone dissenter on the board.

The board's decision was applauded by several proponents in the audience.

"Thirty percent of our kids are obese or are on track to diabetes," said Jennie Cook of Food for Lunch, a coalition advocating nutritious school food. She has been pushing the district to eliminate flavored milk for the past year. "This is a social justice issue."

Emily Ventura, a researcher with the University of Southern California's Childhood Research Center, noted that a number of experts did not recommend flavored milk as a healthy choice. She said 6,000 LAUSD parents had signed a petition to eliminate flavored milk from the district.

Some school districts have opted for a middle road, using natural sweeteners like cane sugar, beet sugar and Truvia to sweeten milks instead of high-fructose corn syrup based flavorings.

But others say children should learn to drink plain milk.

LAUSD has about 688,000 students, second only to the New York City Department of Education.

Comments

[Alan Lindabery]

01:15 PM on 07/13/2011

I think the only true way to stop the obesity in kids and adults is to have a government nutrician overseer in every home in America. It is clear that people are too stupid to eat healthy so it's up to the government to force us all to eat correctly. Only by placing agents for health in each home will we be able to achieve the goal of eliminating obesity.

[Pikmin Zelda]

02:53 AM on 07/02/2011

when i go to school kids mostly buy gatorade - caprisun - water - rips i rarely see kids drinking flavored milk :P if you ask me school lunches are disgusting

[FOXYROSE]

07:59 AM on 06/21/2011

Getting rid of all the corn syrup and glucose and all the corn fed meat would go a long way in this Country. Livestock should eat grasses not corn.

[A-Casual-Observer]

09:24 PM on 06/19/2011

I can't seem to find the part in the story that talks about the petition from these children's parents to KEEP chocolate milk in school... Oh yeah, cause there isn't one.

[amgnme]

10:22 PM on 06/17/2011

If they only offer non flavored milk, most kids will stop drinking it. Then they'll have more kids out due to broken bones, their scores will go down, and the teachers will be blamed. Yep, it's always the teacher's fault. Really, if they want the real cause of obesity blame the politicians that forced out P.E., shortened recess, and insist on a curriculum that does not allow for much physical activity. It's not about the flavored milk. Someone probably has some big bucks coming to him if he can get the schools to change their policy. It's always about money.

[saskatoonie]

03:16 PM on 06/18/2011

Offer plain milk or water.

[Gepids]

12:18 AM on 06/19/2011

They'll drink it once they don't have the flavored milk. Flavored milk is not the cause but the kids get a great deal of sugar in their diets, they don't need the school adding more. BTW, PE is the only curriculum required by CA.

[Seven Teenatheart]

12:46 PM on 06/17/2011

Chocolate milk has been in the schools for decades. It's odd to see it targetted while the less nutritious, sugary fruit juice remains.
This seems the opposite of a good decision.
Going with a vendor that puts less sugar in the milk might have been the lesser of the evils.

Children eat and drink what they like in the end.
If they don't like plain milk, they won't drink it.

[Stilyagi]

05:39 PM on 06/18/2011

No, they'll eat and drink whatever the he-l they're told to eat and drink. Unless they get a job at 6, they won't have a choice.

[fd138]

10:02 AM on 06/17/2011

NANNY STATE.......The cause of over-weight kids is NOT what they eat but caused by electronic games, cable tv, internet, ect. Kids today DO NOT NOW HOW TO PLAY. I'm 57 and I ate all this bad stuff when I was a kid BUT.....we road our bikes played baseball ect. in other words WE GOT OFF THE COUCH.

[saskatoonie]

03:18 PM on 06/18/2011

I am fifty and we didn't have flavoured milk at school on a regular basis, and most of us took a packed lunch with wholesome ingredients. I don't know where you were brought up!

[Gepids]

12:21 AM on 06/19/2011

Exactly, if kids bring their lunch it's Lunchables, or packages. Most kids buy/get their food from the school. Pizza, ckn nuggets, etc. Most don't walk, they get pick up in a car.

[HeresaClue]

08:42 AM on 06/20/2011

Being healthy is about good food and activity. You can be skinny and unhealthy. Teach kids to stop eating and drinking crap that is full of processed sugar. This isn't about being a nanny state, teaching is what schools should do and advocating not teaching healthy eating habits is like advocating not teaching math or science.

[glockman]

08:22 AM on 06/17/2011

What better way to assist in the programming of small minds to all be alike than to serve only the blandest, plainest foods?

[boyoboy]

08:58 AM on 06/17/2011

Healthier lunches build smarter kids, so I know why you don't like it.

[glockman]

09:30 AM on 06/17/2011

Proper education (i.e., not what they teach in the current example of public education) builds smarter kids.

As existing, schools are nothing more than grist mills to churn out mindless workers and dutiful citizens.

[HeresaClue]

08:44 AM on 06/20/2011

Milk is not "bland" because it is not candy flavored.

[glockman]

11:19 AM on 06/20/2011

Nor is it detrimental for kids because it is candy flavored.

[O K Ali]

08:58 PM on 06/16/2011

Go Jamie!

[MikeRubin2]

08:45 PM on 06/16/2011

I think the main reason that the rightwingers here are so offended by this is that Michelle Obama is waging war against childhood obesity.

You know the equation: Michelle Obama = bad; childhood obesity = good.

God help those obese kids, though, when they get diabetes or heart disease after a lifetime of drinking chocolate milk with their fried chicken and then can't make up the shortfall for an unregulated private insurance plan that can't be purchased with the Ryancare vouchers. None of their fellow "pro-liberty," pro-obesity fellow rightwingers is going to help them do a damned thing about that.

When I was in school, we were fed high-fat, high-sugar meals. My own family did not know better and we ate the same kinds of things at home. Now, as an adult, I've got diet-related disease. I wish the school system had intervened back then and taken an interest in children's nutrition. I think that many of my generation would be much better off.

But remember: It's a lot more important to attack the first lady than to help kids get through life without the healthcare they won't be able to afford.

[glockman]

08:23 AM on 06/17/2011

Yeah, banning chocolate milk is going to magically transform all obese children in to healthy, proper weighted kids...

[boyoboy]

08:59 AM on 06/17/2011

Let's apply your logic to addition.  People with drug addictions shouldn't bother to reduce their drug intake.

[MikeRubin2]

09:22 AM on 06/17/2011

No more than your turning off Fox News this afternoon would turn you into someone with two brain cells. But it would emphasize the importance of doing that and is the first step on an important journey. Every important journey needs a first step.

But if you insist on letting your hatred of the First Lady cloud your cognitive processes and want to go on record as opposed to government helping children avoid a health issue that will cause them a lifetime of grief, there's nothing in the change in school milk offerings that prohibits you from stuffing your kids with all the cheeseburgers, triple-meat pizzas, burritos, fried chicken, cocoa puffs, potato chips, and moon pies that you wish when they're not in school. Just don't figure that your fellow Republicans will bail them out when they need to drag oxygen tanks behind them later in life.

[wesx]

06:37 PM on 06/16/2011

Lets give them stuff they wont eat or drink and just throw it away. Better yet lets spend a billion $$s for another food study to see which foods are good for us and watch them throw that in the trash. If the parents at home are not training kids to enjoy healthy food then at school the trash cans will be full!!

[boyoboy]

09:00 AM on 06/17/2011

Most kids are hungry enough at lunchtime.  Maybe they PREFER chocolate milk, but they'll drink white milk if offered. I know that applies to my kids, and they're pretty typical kids.

[saskatoonie]

03:23 PM on 06/18/2011

Yes, yes, you are absolutely right!

[Parkite]

06:29 PM on 06/16/2011

RE: the Nanny State. Aren't schools acting in many respects as a nanny? Should we want, no expect schools to feed our children healthy food? Unfortunately several generations of parents have not been taught good nutritional habits. Too much processed food. Too many commericals touting processed foods as being healthy. NOT. When children can not identify raw fruits and vegies something is terribly wrong.

[Parkite]

06:30 PM on 06/16/2011

BTW, no one is stopping parents from feeding their children anything they want outside of school.

[saskatoonie]

03:26 PM on 06/18/2011

Hey, I am fifty years old, when I was in school there were lots of rules and my parents were happy to have those rules. What in the he!!, has happened to parents today?

[am10]

06:18 PM on 06/16/2011

Illegal aliens are welcome, kids straight out of juvenile hall can come on it, but KEEP THE CHOCOLATE MILK OUT!!!!!

[boyoboy]

12:42 PM on 06/17/2011

One has nothing to do with the other.

[Ivana Kadija]

03:09 PM on 06/16/2011

there is a 1/2 tsp of sugar in the hamburger patty, people! sugar is now in virtually everything we eat and school food is no exception. yes, i had chocolate milk at school as well back in the 1970s, but at least i had an option to choose whole milk if the mood didn't strike me. fat starved children of today don't even have that. they have to drink skim or 1% "milky water" instead. is it any wonder that they boycott the stuff when flavored milks are taken away? Protein and fat are essential for building brains. Sugar is a chronic toxin! fruits and vegetables are great!!! but, any mother knows that they are not going to fill up a growing child. moreover, how are you going to get anyone to eat lettuce when their tray is full of sweet and sugary temptations!

[gabbagabbawill]

06:37 AM on 06/17/2011

fruit is full of sugar... give the kids exercise and they will burn the calories.

[boyoboy]

09:02 AM on 06/17/2011

Natural sugar v. processed sugar.  And, fruit has fiber.   That's why juice isn't encouraged yet whole fruit is.

[A Dub]

02:50 PM on 06/17/2011

Sorry all the physical fitness programs have been discontinued.

[Warren Lauzon]

12:16 PM on 06/16/2011

And it only took them about 5 years to figure out that flavored milk has tons of sugar. I give them another 5 years before they figure out that the other sugared drinks are just as bad.