What’s the deal with chocolate milk?

Most people who know me know I love Jamie Oliver. Seriously, I love this guy and all of his work – we’re talking personal hero status. At the end of the season premier of last season, I cried as he cried – lamenting the resistance of those questioning his motivations when all he wanted to do was change the food landscape for our children for the better. I felt his plight, and felt as if he was telling my story. I even sat up in bed that night and wrote a three-page personal letter expressing just how much his work meant to me and what I was working on at Choicelunch.

 

When I met him at his opening of his LA community kitchen, he was even more impressive in person. He looked me in the eye, and was in the moment in our conversation – deeply engaged in our discussion and honestly caring about what I had to say. This guy has a gift, and his gift is his passion. He uses his passion and his ability to connect with us on an individual level to explain problems in our food system in the most simplistic terms. He’s not doing it for money or fame or recognition – he really believes in the change he’s working towards.

 

Jamie’s position on chocolate milk is pretty clear. “I hate the idea of flavored milk. There’s more sugar per ounce in that product than a can of the most famous fizzy pop.” He then points out that one flavored milk has 28g of sugar per 8oz, which is true. But the characterization of chocolate milk as being on par with soda is dangerous and is a very slippery slope. There are three things that are incredibly important to weigh in this comparision:

 

1) All chocolate milk is not created equal. In 2008, we moved from Berkeley Farms to Clover Stornetta in Northern California because Berkeley wouldn’t remove the HFCS. But the Clover Stornetta milk also had only 23g of sugars compared to 28g for Berkeley Farms.

2) Milk has naturally occurring sugars. A Clover Stornetta 1% white milk has 14g of sugar naturally, and a 1% chocolate milk has 23g of sugar. This is a difference of 9 grams of refined sugar. A 12oz can of Pepsi has 41g of all refined sugar. Equate that to an 8oz serving and you have 27.3g of refined sugar compared to the 9g of additional sugar from the chocolate milk.

3) No one ever drinks only 8oz of soda. The big problem with soda as it contributes to obesity is the sheer volume in which Americans drink it. We’re not getting fat from 8oz of soda. We’re getting fat from 44oz Big Gulps and free refills.

 

Choicelunch allows each of our schools to customize their available beverage selection for their community. And yes, one of the options we offer is chocolate milk sourced from an HFCS-free and hormone-free dairy. The four beverages the schools can choose to offer are 1% white milk, 1% chocolate milk, 100% fruit juice, and bottled water.

 

Chances are that one of those beverages I just listed surprised you. The trick is – which one completely depends on your own personal bias, and may not be the same one that your neighbors or friends may avoid.

 

I’ve heard passionate arguments against all four of these beverages. Yes, I said all FOUR. Even white milk. I’ve heard that bottled water is an exploitation of a once free resource resold at the expense of our landfills, that fruit juice is all sugar and is worse for our kids than soda, that chocolate milk is no better, and that white milk positioned a necessary staple of our children’s diets is the biggest con ever pulled on the American parents and school systems by an immensely power dairy industry. After all, we are drinking the lactation of other mammals – which is a phenomenon unique to humans and conceptually does seem pretty strange.

 

If I were choosing for my school, white milk and water would be the offering. (I am not a fan of bottled water based on it’s environmental impact, but in my view water is ALWAYS the best beverage choice.) Many schools have exactly this configuration, and some even do white milk only. I applaud school communities who say, “this is what we want for our community” and take advantage of our customization. The community just has to weigh the nutritional considerations, allergen and sensitivity considerations, and philosophical considerations (which are often weighed differently parent by parent) and tell us one way another, and we make it happen.

 

I love that Jamie is driving for change, and change in our food system is a long time coming. But the key to change is that it has to be driven by the constituent, and not the authority. Since 2003, I have made countless changes in our program – continually pushing the envelope for more progressive school food without sacrificing the satisfaction of our students. Often I’ve been frustrated by not being able to move faster, and sometimes I’ve even pushed too fast with changes backfiring and students making their dissatisfaction known in no uncertain terms.

 

The most important thing I have learned along the way is to always make sure the kids are looped into the change process, and are even advocating for the change themselves. If you try and force it on them – if you take the “because I’m the mom/principal/<insert authority figure title here> and I said so” approach – your changes don’t stand a chance at having lasting impact. You may be doing what’s best for them in the short-term, but if they don’t learn the “why” behind it and advocate for the change themselves, they will never internalize the lesson and change their own behaviors for the times when you’re not looking.

 

And that’s why I love Jamie Oliver. He illustrates the why in layman’s terms that the whole family can understand. If you’re watching at home, make sure you’re watching with your kids. This is family programming at its best.