According to the Center for Disease Control, childhood obesity has more than tripled in the past 30 years.  To give you an idea of the severity of this problem, back in 1980 only 6.5 percent of children ages 6-11 were obese. The percentage of obese children rose to a staggering 20 percent in 2008. If the obesity trends continue along this path, at least 3 out of 4 people will be obese by the year 2020.

Everyone knows that obesity leads to a host of health problems, including risk for heart disease, high cholesterol and high blood pressure, but I was blown away when I read that 70 percent of obese 5-17 year-olds have at least one risk factor for cardiovascular disease.

Reading these statistics, I believe that something should be done to improve the health and future of our children, however I think that we are focusing on the wrong solutions to address the problem.

For example, I recently heard a report that many schools bans are banning chocolate milk.  Their reasoning is that chocolate milk is full of sugar and is high in calories. Ann Cooper, a leading advocate for healthy school lunches, even says “chocolate milk is just sugary soda in drag.”

I strongly disagree with banning chocolate milk in schools. I lead the Health and Fitness committee at my child’s school and I am focusing on educating children and parents on healthy choices and working with the school district nutritionist on improving the school menu. However, chocolate milk is not on my list of concerns.

Children need the essential nutrients that milk provides. Milk is filled with nine essential nutrients that are crucial to our children’s health, including:

·      Calcium: Builds healthy bones and teeth

·      Protein: Builds/repairs muscle tissue

·      Potassium: Helps maintain healthy blood pressure

·      Phosphorus: Strengthens bones and boosts energy

·      Vitamin D: Helps maintain bones

·      Vitamin B12: Contributes to healthy red blood cells and nerve tissue

·      Vitamin A: Helps vision, skin and immune system

·      Riboflavin (B2): Converts good into energy

·      Niacin: Metabolizes sugars and fatty acids

Additionally, research shows that the nutrients in milk play a role in weight loss. Removing milk from our children’s diet is counterintuitive to contributing to making a positive impact on the childhood obesity rate.

It is important to keep milk in schools because research shows that children tend to drink the majority of their milk at school. There are also many children who are on free or reduced lunch who rely receiving their nutrition at school, as it may be their only meal of the day.

Currently, more than 70 percent of the milk children drink is flavored. As Mary Poppins says, “A spoon full of sugar makes the medicine go down.” If a little chocolate syrup helps deliver the essential nutrients my child needs, than I think the benefit outweighs the extra sugar.

Instead of passing legislation that removes one of the few healthy items on the school menu, we need to focus on replacing fried foods with baked, offering more fresh fruits and vegetables and teaching healthy eating habits. With a weekly lunch menu consisting of fried chicken nuggets, French fries, pancakes with syrup and hot dogs, I think we have bigger issues on the menu than chocolate milk.

What do you think? Do you think that the ban on chocolate milk offers more benefit than detriment to our children’s health? I’d love to hear from you! 

Healthfully,

Stacy 

Five a Day the Fun Way – http://fiveadaythefunway.com