Personally, if I were a lawmaker, I’d probably support the effort to put whole milk back on the school lunch menus. I’d certainly listen to the expert testimony on both sides of the argument, but my inclination is to side with the dairy farmers on this one.
Number one, milk consumption is way down and the dairy industry is suffering. Number two, I’m not convinced that the fat content of milk contributes a lot to childhood obesity. Number three, if people just replace milk with sugary drinks, then the health consequences of the ban will be negative. This is why I would oppose the effort to allow flavored whole milk’s reentry into public schools.
The dairy farmers make another argument that has some merit too. If all you ever get to drink is low or nonfat milk, you’ll probably think milk isn’t that great to begin with.
Like I said, I’m openminded, but also glad to do the farmers a favor on this one unless someone can convince me otherwise.
Skim milk, low fat milk, or any of its derivatives, is undrinkable. Just have a glass of water if low fat is all you have. What next, margarine?
I’m okay with 2% but that is as low as I can go. You can’t even froth 1% milk.
My wife is a dairymans daughter, and I grew up on raw milk, both cow and goat, the goat I had to milk myself. So our household is whole or none.
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American children need healthy cholesterol for their growing brains. I would go further than offering whole milk — I would give children half and half to drink and pull skim milk from the shelves entirely. Skim milk is nothing but sugar with a tiny bit of protein. I didn’t even know that Obama did this. What a huge mistake.