Thanks to Jamie Oliver, LA Unified Schools Ban "Flavored" Milk

[tishaLA]

The L.A. Unified School District Board of Education on Tuesday voted to stop providing chocolate or strawberry-flavored milk in school cafeterias as of July 1.

The move makes L.A. the largest school system in the nation to pull flavored milks out of schools and is part of a larger push to make the food served at school more nutritious. L.A. Unified earlier banned sodas sales at schools.

The district's new superintendent, John Deasy, said plain milk is a healthier option. Parents and some activists have long wanted the district to stop serving flavored milk, which has more sugar than plain milk.<...>

Chef-activist Jamie Oliver said in a statement Tuesday morning that he "couldn't be happier" to see the likely elimination of flavored milk from L.A. Unified campuses. At an appearance with Oliver on Jimmy Kimmel's late-night talk show, Deasy first announced he would get rid of the flavored milk, and Oliver has worked toward that goal both on his "Food Revolution" reality ABC series and behind the scenes. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/06/la-schools-halts-sale-of-chocolate-strawberry-flavored-milk-on-campuses.html">LA Times

I'm not a huge fan of Oliver, but if he can get LAUSD to take this step, my hat's off to him. Too bad he can't cut through all the other bullshit with school lunches.

Edit: Subject-Verb agreement and link added.

[Exultant Democracy]

Give him time. btw do you have a link?

[tishaLA]

3. added it. sorry about that.

[provis99]

1. Oliver fails miserably on some occasions.

But at least he's honest enough to admit it. Famous epic fail on chicken nuggets:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9B7im8aQjo

[tritsofme]

2. This is silly. All it will mean is kids getting less milk.

My bet is that they just won't drink plain milk in anywhere near the same numbers.

[WolverineDG]

6. Actually, they'll be getting less sugar

And besides, if they're hungry enough, or thirsty enough, they'll drink plain milk.

dg

[Codeine]

7. So? They don't need milk anyway.

Where people got the notion that children require cow's milk is beyond me.

[dhill926]

9. what you said..........n/t

[idiotgardener]

16. Without milk it's hard to get your USDA-approved daily amount of

pus, hormones and antibiotics.

[KurtNYC]

19. 1) Multi million dollar ad campaigns: "Got Milk?"

2) Government subsidies, and
3) Government guidelines (food pyramid, etc.)

[provis99]

21. children don't need broccoli, either.

or spinach. Or lettuce.

So what's your point?

[xmas74]

8. We always drank it in school.

We never had "flavored" milk in school. Maybe that's a problem-all the sugary drinks served in the cafeterias.

Teach a kid to drink the "plain" milk and they will.

[no_hypocrisy]

4. The issue is the excessive sugar in the milk, not the flavor.

[Shagbark Hickory]

10. Nevermind the milk, how are we doing on the food?!

[NYCGirl]

5. That's really great news. NT

[Dappleganger]

11. This is stupid beyond belief.

Add 15 more minutes of daily PE or unorganized playtime, that will take care of a tiny carton of chocolate milk.

[Vicar In A Tutu]

12. If calories were the only problem, there'd be less of an issue.

Besides, if kids want it enough, they'll get it. It shouldn't, however, be part of the school's remit to provide anything but the healthiest possible options within their budget, something which flavoured milk certainly isn't.

[jmowreader]

13. I wonder how much of this is actually economics at work?

Flavored milk is more expensive than plain, so they may have cut flavored milk to save money rather than because of any nutritional issue with it.

[Erose999]

14. Cutting flavored milk might drive more kids to sugary sodas. If that school is anything like mine

was, the flavored milk is probably tame compared to the other things they serve.

Our high school gave us a 20 minute break between breakfast and lunch just so they could make money selling candy, biscuits, and sodas.

Edit: And then there was the time they had representatives from Coca-Cola come in and interrupt classes to do focus groups on a new beverage they were coming out with... y'all might have heard of it:

[tishaLA]

20. Sodas are already banned in LAUSD schools

[aikoaiko]

15. Riddle me this.....

Here is a link to what I think is the menu from LAUDS. Scroll down to the drinks. http://cafe-la.lausd.net/sites/default/files/APRIL%20LUNCH%20CAL%20CHO%20FAT%20COUNT%204-8-11%20MEW.pdf

Check out the calories listed for the flavored drinks versus whole milk 1/2 pints sizes.

MILK CHOICES:
Chocolate, Fat-Free, ½ pt. 120 calories
Chocolate, 1%, 6 fl. oz., 128
Soy Milk, ½ pt. 120
Strawberry, Fat-Free, ½ pt. 130
White, 1%, ½ pt. 120
Whole Milk, 6 fl. oz. © 113
Whole Milk, ½ pt. 150

Because the flavored milks were fat-free the calories were about the same or less than the remaining options. Will the students actually be ingesting more calories with the whole milk 1/2 pints?

This puzzles me. Maybe there will be non-fat half pint options which would presumably be less than the 120 and 130 calories for chocolate and strawberry milk.

:shrug:

[aikoaiko]

18. Is it true that the whole milk option has more calories than the nonfat flavored milk options?

:shrug:

[shimmergal]

17. Milk--plain white or flavored--

is the healthiest liquid lots of kids will drink.

"If they get thirsty enough they'll drink water," just isn't true. We live in a desert here, and are very aware of the danger of dehydration. I've seen my grandchildren put off drinking anything at all, because the only thing available was plain water. Granted, our municipal water supply has been rated the worst quality of any metropolitan area's. I'd much rather have them drinking milk than the soda that the younger ones will grab otherwise, or the Red Bull which the twenty-something grandsons consume in great quantities.

Besides, when kids are rail-thin and/or willowy, you don't worry so much about calories. Metabolisms are different. (I too am struggling to put on some weight.) Not too worried about what school systems are banning; the kids carry a packed lunch every day. They _would_ buy milk, except they're alloted so little time for lunch that if they stand in line to buy milk, there's not enough time to eat. So they take packets of Capri Sun instead; that's about the only drink they can carry that doesn't need to be refrigerated. IMO the whole school lunch program has deteriorated drastically since the time the "lunch ladies" prepared and served it right on-site. That's all gone with the wind, now. (Shows my age that I can even remember it.)

Sorry to always be a contrary voice, but I fix the lunches most days and am more in touch with the issue than maybe many others who can afford to take a "politically correct" stand on what kids eat.

[killbotfactory]

22. Regular milk is delicious

You don't need to add sugar and flavor to it, ffs.