Dairy Industry Lies to Fatten Profits (and Children)

[Modern School]

A report by the Associated Press last week said that a number of professional and medical groups, including the American Heart Association (AHA) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), had issued a “joint statement” favoring flavored milk in the schools. Their statement supposedly asserted that “the nutritional value of flavored low-fat or skim milk outweighs the harm of the added sugar.” (See OB Rag)

In reality, no such “joint statement” was ever made. The AP was scammed by dairy industry propaganda designed to keep chocolate milk in the schools. In fact, many medical groups have come out against the practice of feeding kids sugared milk drinks precisely because the added sugar contributes to obesity and tooth decay. AHA and AAP both denied signing the joint statement.

Two of the organizations cited in the AP story (the School Nutrition Association and the American Dietetic Association) have financial links to the dairy industry and have been key players in the effort to keep chocolate milk in the schools. The School Nutrition Association includes dues-paying members from the dairy lobby, including The National Dairy Council and the Milk Processors Education Program, according to the OB Rag story.

The School Nutrition Association worked with the dairy lobby to promote a biased “study” that supposedly showed that kids would not drink milk if it wasn’t flavored. This tactic is highly reminiscent of attempts by the Tobacco industry to sow doubt about the dangers of cigarettes by co-opting scientists and producing their own “scientific” studies to counter the legitimate ones linking smoking to cancer and heart disease. Petroleum and coal companies have done the same to sow doubt about climate change. (See Merchants of Doubt, numerous articles by Robert Procter, The Republican War on Science, among other sources).

Modern School
http://modeducation.blogspot.com/

[SharonAnn]

1. Maybe, but I only drank milk if it was chocolate. I couldn't drink white milk.

If there wasn't chocolate milk, I drank water.

As a result, I got a lot of calcium in my teenage years and was still skinny. Probably because the rest of my meals were homemade and nutritious. Even the school cafeteria meals were made from scratch.

So, the chocolate milk may have had some extra calories, but without it, I'd be facing my senior years with bone density problem.s

[CoffeeCat]

2. So now the dairy industry is a corrupt swamp?

This is what happens when our government turns into a big, Fascist party between powerful, greedy
corporations and sold-out, corrupt, selfish politicians.

Big corporations rake it in. The banks get billions in bailouts. BP gets billions in profits
and a free pass when it wrecks the Gulf. The health-insurance companies and big pharma get
windfalls. Other companies and industries want to get in on the action. Pretty soon, more
companies are using our perverted political system to increase their profits.

It's now typical--to screw over the public, lie to the public; and lobby politicians
for legislation and deregulation that will increase profits at the expense of the American
people.

More and more corporations are using our political system and our politicians to cash
in. All they have to do is donate to a few key politicians on important committees--and
pretty soon they've got what they want and the profits roll in.

The corruption will only worsen, as it trickles down to other corporations, smaller
corporations and industries like the dairy boards. Revolting.