The debate began with some very passionate, very well-intentioned people who are doing their best to combat childhood obesity, says Rachel Johnson. Johnson is a professor of nutrition and of medicine at the University of Vermont and vice-chair of the American Heart Association Nutrition Committee.
She spoke at a health and nutrition symposium for health professionals put on by the Dairy Farmers of Canada in Dieppe yesterday. Johnson says the question of whether or not to allow chocolate milk in schools has led to heated discussion south of the border.
"It's been a real lightning rod in the U.S.," she says. The Los Angeles school board, the second-largest in the country, serving 600,000 children, went so far as to remove flavoured milk from its schools this fall, and other jurisdictions are looking at doing the same.
The concern is the added sugar. The American Heart Association has said women should limit their intake of added sugars to about six teaspoons a day, while men should keep it to nine teaspoons.
Johnson says Americans are consuming, on average, 30 teaspoons of sugar per day, while Canadians consume about 16 teaspoons a day. Johnson says a lot of that sugar comes from what people are drinking. She says Americans drink about twice the number of soft drinks that Canadians do.
Johnson says we really need to watch what we drink because its easy to add a lot of empty calories to your diet that way. In the U.S., a study found teenagers were getting about 20 per cent of their daily calories from sugar, a number Johnson says she still finds shocking. Its not surprising then that those looking at school nutrition are taking any means they can to reduce the amount of sugar in children's diets.
"My concern with that approach is that a couple of dairy processors have done a good job of lowering the fat and sugar in flavoured milk. In many areas it is the same as one per cent white milk. In L.A. they were serving low-sugar, fat-free flavoured milk. In terms of calories, they are not really any further ahead," Johnson says.
But they may be further behind. Johnson says studies have shown about 70 per cent of children in the U.S. choose flavoured milk and if they don't get milk at lunchtime they're very unlikely to meet their daily calcium requirements.
In a study she conducted, children purchased nearly 25 per cent less milk when they were only offered only white milk and they wasted more of it, leading to an overall drop in milk consumption of 35 per cent.
Johnson says that's worrisome because milk is an excellent source of calcium, Vitamin D, and potassium, all nutrients that children typically are not getting enough of.
Her study went on to look at how the nutrients lost by the drop in milk consumption could be replaced. Her team came up with several food "bundles" that could make up the shortfall, working with foods school cafeterias serve. One example included three ounces of tuna, one ounce of cheddar cheese, six ounces of low-fat yogurt with fruit, and a half a cup of frozen cooked carrots. Johnson says in every case three or four foods were needed to replace what was lost by not drinking as much milk and each bundle added back more fat and calories and about half the sugar the children would have received through drinking milk. It also cost more - between $2,200 and $4,600 annually per 100 students.
Johnson says studies have found children who drink flavoured milk drink more milk overall and drink less soft drinks and fruit drinks. They also have no higher added sugar intakes and there is no adverse affect on their body mass index, a calculation used to determine obesity. She says many people in the U.S. don't realize that the flavoured milks found in schools often have less sugar and fat than the high fat, high sugar ones found on grocery store shelves.
She says she'd like to see dairy processors lower the fat and sugar content of chocolate milk as far as they can go while still having a product children like.
In New Brunswick, chocolate milk comes in 1 per cent and 2 per cent formulations and schools have the same version that you find at the store. Parents do need to take care they are choosing chocolate milk, though, and not a chocolate beverage, which contains some milk, but often not as much, and usually much more sugar.
"The Institute of Medicine put out a report where they are recommending fat-free or low-fat white milk or fat-free chocolate milk," Johnson says. "They say there is room for some fat or some sugar, but not both."
Johnson says the best thing we can do with the added sugar we do have in our diets is to use it to make an already nutritious food more palatable. "Try to use it to sweeten already nutritious foods. Find good ways to use added sugars. We don't have room for empty calorie foods."
So instead of drinking a soda, add a little sugar to your oatmeal. Instead of a sugar-laden fruit drink, have a yogurt with added fruit. Johnson says there are few people who will eat plain oatmeal or yogurt, so the end justifies the means if adding a little sugar gets you to chow down on healthier choices. That's also how she feels about chocolate milk.
While white milk might be healthier, if letting your child drink chocolate milk means they drink more milk, then it's worth accepting the added sugar. Johnson says only having white milk might work well with younger children, but she says as children hit their tween years, they tend to start drinking less milk and start drinking more juice and pop. White milk can't compete, but chocolate might stand a better chance, she says.