Is it OK to let your kids drink chocolate milk? Yes, but not every day. “Chocolate milk should be something not forbidden, but not preferred,” says Dana H. Clarke, M.D., associate professor at the Utah Diabetes and Endocrinology Center. Because parents and health officials complained about chocolate milk in schools, several school districts removed the sweet drink from breakfast and lunch menus.
They expected kids to switch to regular white milk. Instead, the overall consumption of milk decreased by nearly one-third. Jessica Cooper, director of the Health and Fitness Institute at LDS Hospital, suggests that schools offer students more beverage options. Introducing other milk alternatives, such as soy or almond milk, will give students the same nutrients as milk, but with far less sugar and fewer calories than chocolate milk.
The Institute of Medicine encourages serving chocolate milk in schools, but has recommended that schools switch to fat-free chocolate milk, which has hardly more calories than white 1 percent milk.
Kelly Orton, director of child nutrition for the Salt Lake City School District, is a strong supporter of serving chocolate milk in schools. It isn’t impossible to encourage kids to eat more vegetables, but persuading your child to drink a glass of chocolate milk is much easier. In fact, it would take three or four food items to match milk’s contribution of vitamins and minerals. “We’re fighting a battle every day trying to find food that the children will eat,” Orton says.