Chocolate milk may be off the menu for at least some school lunches. To address the problem of reducing children’s sugar intake, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is floating the idea of limiting chocolate milk in schools beginning in the 2025 to 2026 school year.
USDA/Flickr
The USDA proposed an alternative that flavored milk be served only to high school students in grades nine through 12. Another option would allow flavored milk in schools for all children from kindergarten through high school. However, for both situations, the amount of sugar added to the milk will be limited.
The proposed rules stem from a USDA analysis that found flavored milk was the leading source of added sugars in school meal programs, contributing about half of the added sugars at lunch and about 30 percent of the added sugars at breakfast.
The government agency stresses that both options aim to limit only sugar, not dairy, in schools. “The proposed rule encourages the use of fat-free or low-fat milk, while allowing certain flavored milks to be offered in school meals,” the USDA says.
A chocolate milk ban could loosen the hold of big dairy in schools
But why should the school serve milk in the first place? The National School Lunch Act, enacted during World War II in the 1940s, requires schools to provide all children with two types of dairy milk—one of which can be flavored, but must be low-fat or fat-free.
This is despite a decline in dairy milk consumption since the 1970s. How many children throw in the garbage? It’s estimated that students discard 29 percent of dairy milk cartons delivered to schools—a drain down $300 million in taxpayer funds each year.
But that hasn’t diminished the dairy industry’s presence and influence in school cafeterias.
USDA
Some students are taking matters into their own hands. The USDA, along with the Los Angeles School District, was recently named as a defendant in a lawsuit. The nonprofit doctors’ group Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) filed a lawsuit on behalf of high school student Mariel Williamson, alleging that the USDA and the Los Angeles Unified School District violated her First Amendment free speech rights.
What led to the lawsuit? When 17-year-old Williamson tried to share the benefits of plant-based milk, Eagle Rock High School informed her that she could not share information about plant-based milk or criticize the dairy industry in the school cafeteria unless she provided a professional. . -Dairy content as well, demonstrates the strong hold that Big Dairy continues to have in schools.
Milk substitutes are served to all students
Although the sugar content of chocolate milk is the reason for its possible removal from school meals, the problems with dairy milk are not limited to sweets.
While Big Dairy marketing campaigns have convinced older generations that milk contains important nutrients that cannot be found anywhere else, science continues to point to different conclusions. And a growing body of research recently linked milk consumption and the risk of certain illnesses.
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Large numbers of students, disproportionately people of color, are unable to even digest milk proteins, making the requirement to consume dairy milk in schools even more wasteful and inconsiderate.
“In addition to the widespread inability to digest lactose, milk and other dairy products are the top source of saturated fat in the American diet, which contributes to heart disease, type 2 diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease,” Anna Herby, DHSc, RD, CDE, PCRM Nutrition Education Program Manager, told VegNews. .
“Studies have linked dairy consumption to an increased risk of breast, ovarian and prostate cancer,” Herbie says. “This is not a health-promoting food and alternatives should be available in schools.”
And dairy milk alternatives can help all students thrive in school. After continued efforts by the non-profit Switch4Good, the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines recognized soy milk as nutritionally equivalent to dairy milk. Earlier this year, new bipartisan legislation was introduced by Representatives Troy Carter (D-LA) and Nancy Mays (R-SC) that would change the milk monopoly in schools.
Known as the Addressing Digestive Distress in Stomachs of Our Youth (ADD SOY) Act, the legislation seeks to provide soy milk to children participating in the National School Lunch Program and mandates USDA fully reimburse schools for the cost of soy milk provided.
“30 percent of babies throw away milk and billions of tax dollars are wasted, not just spilled milk,” Mays said in a statement. “Kids should make a healthy choice in the lunchroom.”
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Anna Starostenetskaya is Senior News Editor at VegNews and keeps an eye on all things vegan in her hometown of San Francisco, CA and elsewhere.