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State Delays Chocolate Milk Ban At Public Schools
December 16, 2010
The State Board of Education has decided to delay any decision on whether to ban chocolate milk and other sugary drinks from Florida public schools after it received a letter from Agriculture Commissioner-elect Adam Putnam requesting the delay.
“They’re not going to take it up because they thought it was a reasonable request,” said state Department of Education spokeswoman Cheryl Etters. Putnam, in his letter to the board, wrote that part of his campaign platform was to move school food programs into the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, “with a goal of improved nutrition and the development of better lifelong eating habits.”
Putnam said he would like to take a comprehensive look at food service offerings, rather than just focusing on drinks.
Comments
27 Responses to “State Delays Chocolate Milk Ban At Public Schools”
REGARDING:
“Corn syrup as a sweetener began about 25 years ago. Hmmm, about the same time Americans started becoming porkers”
I was a porker before that.
Corn syrup and sugar are both sugars, just one is liquid and comes from corn, the other is solid and comes from its close kin, cane. Corn syrup is used instead of sugar because of price supports on sugar making it more expensive for the same amount of sweetening.
Sweeteners are put in food to make it taste better and get people to buy and eat it. (That’s why I drink sweet tea rather than unsweetened tea.)
All food contains calories in the form of chemical energy. It doesn‘t matter if it is sugar, starch, fat. (One kilocalorie is a Calorie, or thousand calories. It is the energy required to raise the temperature of one kilogram of water one degree Celsius.) If energy is not used up by activity, the body stores it. (Hence my body weight.) If it is used up, the body can not store it. Physical activity burns up Calories. Those watching television or typing at computers are not engaged in very physical activity. (Hence my body weight.) There are more computers than there used to be, more users.
David for ham sandwiches
I went to school from 1956 to 1968. “Porkers” or obese kids through these twelve years were an exception, not the rule. Look at any class, any grade of kids today and tell me if you notice anything. TRUST ME, chocolate milk is not the culprit here. If our gov’t officials feel like they just have to focus on something,they should be looking at a serious thing like corn syrup as a food ingredient. The food industry itself has admitted how fattening it is, and its an ingredient in just about anything edible. Start checking content labels next time you go shopping. Corn syrup as a sweetener began about 25 years ago. Hmmm, about the same time Americans started becoming porkers
Jim, you are correct, there is just no cure for stupid!
any nutritionist will tell you that chocolate milk is a better choice than other drinks like soda or energy drinks. the small amount of sugar is minimal when weighed with the benifit of the calicum. vitamin d and calicum are important to growing bodies. perhaps more children and young adults will drink chocolate milk if they have no option for soda or energy drinks. I agree chocolate milk is better than no milk at all as many students do not take vitamin pills either. they need the vitamins and calicum from some place….
More important than banning chocolate milk is banning sugary soft drinks, fake juices, energy drinks, and other junk foods and drinks. Better chocolaote milk than no milk, I agree.
Why not make the parent responsible. Save the school system money and free up our legislators to deal with real issues. BRING LUNCH FROM HOME!!! Water fountains at school provide what a body needs to get thru the day.
OMRBKH….my husband agrees with you 100%….It’s absolutely true that kids are not getting the proper exercise…most schools have done away with gym or phys. ed. classes. Not enough emphasis on actual physical fitness…too much emphasis on diet. He says “get them off their butts for at least an hour a day”. Take away all their electronic gadgetry until they’ve completed at least two 30 minute workouts within a 12 hour period. However, if your child is obviously overweight, do something about it before he/she develops more serious health problems associated with weight gain. One serving of chocolate milk a day does not make a child obese…a serving of ice cream, French fries, hamburger, cake, or pie while playing video games and no exercise, however, is a different story!
@ Just me……….two thumbs up!!!
Could it be possible that the reason there are so many overweight school-age children is not because they take in too many calories, but because they don’t get enough exercise?
Give the kids chocolate milk if they want it AND recess, vigorous play time to work of the few extra calories while they are at school. They will be on the couch with the computer games when they get home. Or maybe, just maybe, more children will lean that it can be fun to play ball, run, and participate in other legitimate physical activities. Maybe physical education should be required in middle and highschool every year.
My goodness some people don’t have anything better to do that try and ban chocolate milk? If I tell my children or grandchildren that they can have chocolate milk then that’s that!!!! If they ( who ever they are ) need something to do give them material to pass out about the harm in drugs….not chocolate milk….goodness!!
Ban Chocolate Milk!
What is needed is to ban the eating of vegetables only. This so called healthy diet is obviously making people crazy.
Why oh why do some people think they have a duty to tell others how to live, breath and move about.
What arrogance for anyone to think that they can control what others eat.
Wait – is this proposed by the same woman that is reported suing a fast food chain to stop them from putting toys in kids meals, because her kids are “Making her take them there to eat.”
If we continue to allow government to control our lives we will probably soon ban broccoli because it causes undue stress in a significant number of children when forced to eat it.
There just is no cure for stupid.
If they are so worried about the sugar content in the chocolate, why not offer a chocolate flavored low-fat milk containing Estevia or Splenda instead? I switched from sugar to Splenda 2 years ago…have it in my iced tea, hot tea, hot cocoa (I make my own hot cocoa with unsweetened cocoa powder, Splenda, and low-fat milk). Lost weight (not dramatic but 10 lbs or so). Better than no milk at all and still tastes great!
So ridiculous these days..just recently .heard of a woman trying to sue McDonald’s because they entice her children by offering toys with their meals! She’s the parent….doesn’t she know how to say no and mean it? No one is forcing her to take her kids to McDonalds! Mine never saw the inside of one until they were grownups and out on their own…and they still avoid fast food joints!
They have already reduced the meals that they have whats next? I know that the children that will not have anything to drik because they want drink the choclate milk.
Our politicians and Government are hard at work against the evils of Chocolate Milk.
“The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the Constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first.”
— Thomas Jefferson
If government were a product, selling it would be illegal.
Ban Chocolate milk? Geez! I’m a kid at Bratt Elem., and if you take away coco milk, trust me, you are not on my “favorite person” list. ONE CARTON IN 7 HOURS DOES NOT HURT!
If they take chocolate milk away and force the white milk on the kids, they still can’t make them drink it! Then they won’t be getting any calcium at all, or very little. Let the kids have the chocolate milk. It’s part of being a kid. One little carton won’t hurt them. Also, quit letting the teachers threaten to take recess away if the kids don’t do this or that. Recess is a requirement and so are special areas such as art, music, etc. Teachers need to remember this and stop taking away these times as punishment to the child for some infraction.
Good Luck Florida child nutrition employees! We were switched from the State education department to the Agriculture department several years ago. The biggest change we have seen is the need to constantly keep up with the political wants of the commissioner each election year. Working this program to please a politically motivated leader for us created confusion and political pandering. It has calmed down since the change was intiated but I have become so much more aware of what someone is willing to say in order to further a policital agenda, whether it be true or false. Our new commissioner has been better than the last….but it is much easier to work for a department whose leader is not elected.
As part of a healthy lunch at school, if there is such a thing, low fat chocolate milk isn’t going to hurt a thing. Moderation, Moderation, Moderation!
this is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard! why not focus on IMPORTANT issues in schools? god forbid that the kids have some chocolate milk to wash down that POT that they were smoking before they got to school. this is ridiculous.
Why choclate milk what about all the ice cream offered ?? Let the kids have a little bit of some thing to look forward to at school. Kindergarden treated like third grade.
I drank chocolate milk back in the 70’s at school—and nothing bad happened to me. I still cringe at the thought of drinking “white” milk!
Crazy! Let the parents decide what their kids are to eat or drink.. Schools need to focus on academics.
Banning chocolate milk?
Rubbish.
■CandysVinceGill on December 16th, 2010 5:11 am
If it were not for chocolate milk, most kids would not drink milk at all, forget about them drinking juice, that leaves sodas and sodas.
– This post is absolutely correct. Sometimes people with “titles” and “positions” get too petty. Leave the milks alone. Can’t they focus on the “real” problems in schools! One carton a milk during the 7 hours kids are in school can’t harm them!
Oh please, kids have been drinking chocolate milk for generations. One small carton per day is not going to hurt anyone. It’s the massive quantities kids and adults consume now that is the problem!
yep
if it were not for chocolate milk, most kids would not drink milk at all, forget about them drinking juice, that leaves sodas and sodas.