The Truth about Flavored Milk
Reading this headline might cause you to raise an eyebrow; however flavored milk is more nutritious than you might think. Some schools have made the decision to remove chocolate and other flavored milks from the cafeteria. Even though these bans have been well intentioned, they have done more nutritional harm than good. Let’s have a closer look…
| *Myth… | Reality… |
| Flavored milk isn’t as nutritious as regular milk | Chocolate milk contains the same nine essential nutrients as white milk, including vitamin D, calcium and potassium “nutrients of concern” that most kids fail to get enough of, according to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
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| Flavored Milk contains high sugar content, up there with soft drinks. | Research shows that flavored milk contributes just 3% of added sugars to kids’ diets versus sodas and fruit drinks, which account for close to half of the added sugar and deliver much less, if any, nutritional value.
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| Just offering one nutritious choice is the best way to encourage kids to drink more milk. | Offering nutritious choices in school – like fat free and lowfat white milk and fat free chocolate milk – helps kids learn food and nutrition lessons and research suggests “choice” helps boost kids’ overall intake of nutritious foods. Cornell university researchers found that children ate more carrots when they were offered a choice between carrots or celery, compared to when they only were provided carrots. ** |
* American Dairy Association and Dairy Council, Inc.
** Conducted by Brian Wansink, PhD of Cornell Center for Behavioral Economics in Child Nutrition 2011