The Fat Diaries: D.C.'s War on Chocolate Milk
Washington D.C.’s public schools have announced that this coming fall they will no longer be serving flavored milk or sugary cereals. Now, I live in Loudon County Virginia and as of yet Virginia has yet to adopt this plan. But considering that my eldest child starts school in Fall 2011, it’s only a matter of time. Now for the sugary cereal policy I like: I’ve yet to see how Apple Jacks resembles anything close to a breakfast food, but I’m of two minds about the flavored milk policy. I love that the schools are listening to parents’ pleas to raise the standard of food quality and minimize unnecessary sources of sugar.
I’m also the parent of a kid who hates plain milk.
My son, who will henceforth be referred to as “the boy,” hates plain milk. It was actually a problem when he was younger that he wouldn’t drink cow’s milk. We were worried that he wasn’t getting enough calcium, so we asked his doctor who calmly suggested that we try giving him chocolate milk. This is nothing new, of course. They were doing it back in my dad’s day; adding Ovaltine or malt flavoring to milk so kids would drink it. In fact I think my dad, to this day, will only drink chocolate milk. This was even a minor media controversy when in 2009 schools started promoting the “raise your hand for chocolate milk” campaign to get kids to drink milk.
The boy’s doctor added that we should prepare the boy’s milk using chocolate syrup or powder instead of buying the pre-mixed chocolate milk at the store. It was cheaper, and we could control how much sugar went into the boy’s milk. A half-pint of 1% milk naturally contains about 12 grams of sugar, while the same amount of pre-sweetened chocolate milk contains 26 grams of sugar. Since I add my own chocolate syrup to the boy’s milk I choose NOT to add the full two tablespoons recommended on the syrup bottle (16 grams of sugar; milk sugar’s included) and instead add a “dab” or about a teaspoon which brings the total to a more reasonable 14 grams. The boy drinks his milk and gets the calcium he needs without too much more sugar in his life.
I realize that in public school the boy would be one of the kids that would automatically reach for the high-sugar chocolate or strawberry milk. I also realize that if this option were taken away he’d be far more likely to reach for the equally sugary juices offered by the schools. Giving up milk in favor of grape-juice cocktail? Not my idea of a good trade-off since chocolate milk has far more nutrients than grape-flavored sugar water.
Realizing this to be the case, I have to go through the whole fight again. I have to develop the boy’s taste for plain milk, there’s no other real option. I’m starting small. Dinner is now a designated “plain milk” meal where only plain milk is consumed by the kids, AND by Mom and Dad. That’s right, Mom is denied soda, iced tea, beer, and/or coffee until after the meal is over. Instead I have a big ol’ tumbler of the white stuff next to my plate. I tell my kids to quit playing with their milk and drink it using both hands. They tell me to do the same.
It’s not always successful. The boy, when he wants to, will dig in his heels and demand chocolate milk or juice. His only other option at dinnertime is water, and I will let him have that instead if he really pitches a fit, but it’s slowly starting to work. We’re not at the point where he’ll ask for plain milk, but he’s learning not to expect it at supper. And since he sees that Mommy and Daddy are drinking it too, he’s become a social plain milk drinker. Perhaps when he starts school in a year, he’ll see his classmates drinking plain milk and decide to do the same. Perhaps he won’t and will reach for the apple juice or grape juice, but I’ll have at least tried.
My next question for America’s public schools is will they serve plain healthy milk along with chili-cheese nachos? Gristly chili on top of salty corn chips covered in fake cheese seems (to me) far more harmful to a growing child than sweet milk – especially if served every week. Sounds more like gastronomic torture.
Hmmm… maybe I’ll send the boy to school with a PACKED lunch. They make really cute lunchboxes these days.
