A Great Clamor for Sugar-Free Schools
June 30th, 2010 · 2 Comments · Posted in kids, school food
Why are kids eating this in school?
Jamie Oliver at his widely followed website this week linked to our sister blog, Better D.C. School Food, and news that D.C. Public Schools will no longer serve flavored milk and sugary cereals. The result was more than 100 times the usual number of visitors at the blog yesterday and more than 100 comments, almost unanimously supporting the effort to reduce the amount of sugar served to kids in school.
Many of those comments, from readers around the country, constitute pleas to school officials to take similar steps to make food healthier in their school districts. It appears there is a huge demand to restrict flavored milk in particular. But the powerful dairy industry has managed to scare many parents and food service directors into believing that children will suffer horrible health consequences if they do not have access to milk laced with high-fructose corn syrup, artificial flavorings, colorings and other additives.
Most of the industry’s flavored milk is served in schools and schools pay more for it. But an eight-ounce serving of low-fat milk already contains 12 grams of sugar–or three teaspoons–in the form of naturally occurring lactose. Chocolate milk typically has another 12 to 14 grams of sugar in the form of high-fructose corn syrup added, making it nearly the equivalent of Classic Coke. Strawberry milk has even more sugar, almost as much as Mountain Dew.
Parents for Better D.C. School Food have argued that school meals could be made healthier overnight simply by eliminating the sugary “treats” served to children on a daily basis, especially at breakfast. In D.C. schools, breakfast options typically include flavored milk, sugary cereals, Pop-Tarts, Giant Goldfish Grahams, Otis Spunkmeyer muffins and fruit juice, meaning elementary school children often are consuming 50 or 60 grams of sugar–the equivalent of 15 teaspoons–before classes even start.
Ironically, despite all the regulations and standards governing the nutritional content of food served under the federally subsidized meals programs, there is no limit on the amount of sugar that can be served. Like the dairy industry, the sugar lobby in this country is a powerful force. Even the recently approved “Healthy Schools Act” here in the District of Columbia, while increasing funding for school meals and raising nutrition standards, failed to take on the sugar issue, ostensibly because there are no existing standards on which to base local regulations.
It was up to school officials to take the first, bold step.
D.C. school officials have said that in addition to eliminating flavored milk, they will also be choosing cereals with six grams of sugar or less. That would rule out virtually all of the cereals served until now by the D.C. Public Schools’ current food service provider, Chartwell’s. So far, however, school officials have not responded to our inquiries about possible new protocols for serving other sugary processed foods and fruit juices.
As recently as a couple of weeks ago, my daughter and her classmates at H.D. Cooke Elementary School were being served Pop-Tarts for breakfast in their classroom. A single serving of “whole grain frosted strawberry” Pop-Tart contains 13 grams of sugar, or a bit more than three teaspoons. Here are the ingredients listed on the packaging:
“Whole wheat lfour, high fructose corn syrup, enriched flour (wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, Thiamin mononitrate (Vitamin B1), riboflavin (Vitamin B2), folic acid), soybean and palm oil (with TBHQ for freshness), polydextrose, sugar, dextrose, corn syrup solids, corn syrup, whole grain barley flour, glycerin, contains two percent or less of inulin from chicory root, wheat starch, salt, dried strawberries, dried pears, dried apples, cornstarch, leavening (baking soda, sodium acid pyrophosphate, moncalcium phosphate), natural and artificial strawbery flavor, citric acid, gelatin, caramel color, soy lecithin, xanthan gum, modified wheat starch, Vitamin A palmitate, niacinimide, red #40, reduced iron, pyridoxine hydrochloride (Vitamin B6), yellow #6, riboflavin (Vitamin B2), thiamin hydrochloride (Vitamin B1), folic acid.
As far as the milk issue is concerned, I wonder why the school food system feels the need to serve the children low fat milk instead of whole milk. Kids need to have some good fat in their diet. It slows down the sugar rush into the bloodstream, plus fat is needed for proper brain and vision development. Whole milk is what kids drank back in the days before they become overweight and sedentary. Do they think that giving kids low fat milk will make up for all of the sugar-laden garbage they’re being fed?
Hi, Low fat milk verses the whole milk?
In a word…child obesity is one reason. 🙂
BTW, I totally agree w/ the ALL of the garbage being served in the lunch room & within the school itself. Because I have so much conviction w/ concern of the school supplied garbage, I personally combat this within my own home by preparing my son’s lunch each day. I know & understand that not everyone is able to do this & feel blessed that we can. Dinner leftovers is one easy way of doing this. His lunch also includes containers of either Soy, Almond, Rice & very rarely even some “Organic” low fat milk.
As for getting the daily requirement of calcium, “Dairy” should never ever be our primary source. (In spite of what the American Dairy Association would have everyone believe) Instead, we all take all 3…Calcium, Vitamin D3 & Magnesium supplements daily…so no concerns here.
You may want to Google & research the negative health issues caused by cow’s milk, especially the whole milk. Chronic & repeated ear infections is one. I would highly recommend Googling “Osteophorosis & cows milk”(get correct spelling) …& certainly not the American Dairy Association.
Afterwards, it is my hope that your view of “Cow’s Whole Milk” is changed, as it is actually not a good source of fat. One example source of good fats are nuts.
Wishing you & your family health & wellness,
Caring Mom