Above: Chocolate milk
Above: Skim (fat free) milk
Below: 1% milk
Milk has been there my whole life. I loved the stuff and drank it everyday. But like many folks in my family as I have gotten older it’s gotten harder for me to digest milk products. This project has revealed to me that I’m lactose-intolerant. Just to make my life easier I’m cutting out straight milk and ice cream (dairy products with the most lactose). Lact*aid products although great just seem like too much fooling around for me with my busy schedule. I can’t imagine removing dairy completely from my life since I love yogurt (and luckily it is low in lactose).
Milk is a staple of school lunches. Kids really do love it (I know my toddler does). I think the debate about milk that I’ve seen online is that students should only be served skim milk because it is low in fat and that it does not contain high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) like chocolate milk. I am concerned about HFCS and how it influences children’s behavior, but I don’t have a lot of information about it. I also think it’s possible that students who don’t get good fats (vegetable oils) in their diet could benefit from milk fat instead of trans fat.
Not with regard to most if not any of the previous comments: I also used to drink milk everyday from ages ~2-18. Once I started college, I drank the milk at the cafeteria which I have come to find out was severely watered down. When I went back home for vacation, drinking real milk did a number to my stomach and intestines. My point is that I believe that schools should offer a rice or soy based milk alternative to dairy. It may not be popular, but I see a lot of HS students going for the HFCS invested 'juice' or Gatorade since they are the only alternatives to dairy milk that have taste. People will probably not agree that this will be a super-progressive form of action for nutrition, but it might help the lactose intolerant.
What ever happened to water with lunch? Not that I'm saying that milk is an unhealthy drink compared to fruit juice crap and soda, but those little containers are loaded with sugar (one regular carton has more sugar than a person should consume daily). Mini water bottles are the best option for kids.
I can only speak for myself and my children-I dislike the word "should" which is typically involved with forcing opinions on others.
When I stopped providing milk for my children, they stopped drinking it.
If I raise a cow, I'll give it cow's milk.
If I raise a rat, I'll give it rat's milk (though that's likely harder to come by).
It's a little scary how excited/irate people get about food…especially when the topic is trying to provide the healthiest OPTIONS for our children.
Aside, I grew up on milk and became lactose intolerant probably about 10 years before I even realized it.
I was uninformed for years about foods and didn't realize that ads for "healthy" food like milk, pork, etc were created by people that directly profited from my consuming those products.
I won't tell anyone what their opinion should be, I will tell you what mine is and why and it is others' choice to agree or not.
Keep up the good work!
We need to keep in mind that milk really does a body good! There are few places where kids can get the calcium and Vitamin D they need.
Drinking chocolate milk with sugar (or HFCS) is probably a better choice for most kids than not drinking any milk at all.
If kids will only drink sweetened milk, I say "Let 'em." In this case the benefits outweigh the risks.
The vast majority of posts reinforce that people have been brainwashed by the pork council, dairy council, beef council (incidentally, "council" is a word that the COMPANIES use to make them sound like a scientific body – they are nothing more than corporations seeking to protect profits). Facts: 1Dairy is not necessary for calcium – in fact, dairy leeches the calcium from your bones. Calcium is readily available from plant-based sources. 2. Meat is not necessary for protein. Broccoli is more protein dense than steak and protein abounds in other plant based sources. The fact is that most people suffer from TOO MUCH protein.
3. The USDA (dept of agriculture or in other words, the dept of beef/dairy/egg/pork farmers who profit from you buying their products) is heavily lobbied to influence the nutritional "guidelines" that you all cling to.
4. Several people on here begin their posts by making sure we know that they have a "nutrition" education or credentials or that their doctor said this or that… Do some research and discover how much $ is spent to influence and fund "nutrition" programs and to influence Doctors. Also, check out the health of your Doctor (generally not good). Why would you take what they say as gospel truth… They are paid drug pushers for the pharmaceutical companies. The typical doctor has had less than a couple hours of "nutrition" education. They spend their time learning which products (I mean drugs) to push (er, I mean prescribe).
Enough already… before you post anything, read The China Study or Diet for a New America. Most of your posts contain ludicrous reasoning to support your desire to keep eating crap and feeding your kids crap rather than stepping up and doing right by them.
When I was in school (graduated high school 2001, for time reference), at some point when I was in elementary school, they switched to serving milk in little squarish plastic bags, rather than cartons. Nearly everyone drank chocolate after that, because the chocolate and sugar masked the awful bag taste that the plain white milk had. Looking back, this was absolutely disgusting…
YOU KNOW WHEN I WAS IN SCHOOL THEY USED TO FREEZE THE MILK SO WHEN WE DRANK IT, IT WAS WATERED DOWN MILK. KINDA TASTED LIKE WATER.
I know there is little to no room for children to be picky at lunch but….
I hated the milk choices at lunch as a kid (I'm now 21) and I grew up on whole milk so skim and 1% taste and look nothing like milk to me. add to that the fact that i am (partially) lactose intolerant as well.
Chocolate milk was my only option as a kid eating school lunches. Sure it is higher in calories but at least I was getting calcium and other nutrients from it. And ours was made from 1% milk, but with whatever they add to choco. Milk it made it taste like it was whole milk. So I would be really, very, sad to see choco. milk go off the menu for children.
And oddly enough choco. milk does not upset my stomach. I tried 1% once as a kid and had a horrible stomach ache the rest of the day. After that if they didn't have choco. milk at school I just wouldn't drink the milk and throw it out. I hated wasting good food but they wouldn't let you through the line with out milk on your plate.
did you know that a majority of adults are lactose intolerant but don't know it?
queencook, don't leave just because posts are getting sour. Why would you stop reading the blog just because of dissenting posters? Obviously this makes your opinion even more needed to balance it out. We are all trying to learn here, and a critical analysis can only take place when hearing both sides and researching the issues that seem to be most disputed.
Note that the chocolate milk contains carrageenan, which is known to cause inflammation. Best to avoid, especially for those who have digestive / intestinal problems.
This post reminded me of a Simpsons episode when Bart reads his milk carton and it said "Malk" and not "Milk." Ha ha ha!!! I love the Simpsons and how they address social issues!
Just a tip we learned while living in France:
My hubby and daughter are both lactose intolerant, too. He is severe enough that one pat of butter can cause major intestinal distress. When we discovered it with her, it was due to blowout diapers and bloody murder screams, and the scariest diaper rash you've ever seen.
In France, if he ate yogurt every day, he was able to eat butter, cheese and ice cream. (Not straight milk to drink, though.)
When we moved home, we tried to duplicate this, but we couldn't find an American yogurt that did the same. They all had too few cultures in them (the cultures are what digests the lactose for him) and too much cornstarch, pectin, sugar, and chemicals.
Then we found one brand that worked. Since you drink Dean, I assume you might be near enough to get it (we lived in Madison at the time.) It was Mountain High yogurt, which we found at the Willy St. Coop in Madison. It's out of Colorado. Navy blue label with a cow on it. It's not sold on the east coast, but I know it is available in the Midwest. Don't know how far east.
He's now a professor at Penn State and we can't get that brand here. None of the others work (even Stonyfield, Brown Cow, etc.) plus they aren't as tasty anyway. Mt. High is very much like real French yogurt (french brands here like Dannon and Yoplait are geared for American tastes and are nasty.)
I make my own yogurt using fresh milk from a local dairy, dry milk to thicken it a bit, and cultures I buy at the health food store. We have a yogurt machine, but it can be done in a crock pot (check crockpot365.blogspot–she has a recipe.)
My daughter is almost 3, and has the same issues. Eating a little of my homemade yogurt daily allows them both to eat some dairy, which makes life a lot easier than reading every stinking label on everything (what I had to do when he was first diagnosed, about 15 years ago.) She drinks Silk, but can have a bit of cheese, yogurt, or even ice cream now. Plus, she prefers the plain yogurt, unsweetened and tends to choose whole foods, not processed stuff. I am proud of this–we're not super strict, but her favorite food is tomatoes. 🙂
I hope this helps you! If you can find Mountain High, give it a try.
Have you tried switching to raw milk and raw milk products (cheese, etc)? Pasturization kills enzymes in milk which make it harder to digest and create food allergies. If you are unable to find raw milk, goats milk is a great alternative and I have found the body digests it better than cow milk.