The Education Wonks
Whole milk plays little or no part in avidable diabetes. Also, unlike whole milk, the addiction to sugar often carries on into adulthood.
It's wholly unhealthy, and it's high time schools stopped peddling it to our kids.
Now, come on Gatorade has what 1/3 or less of the calories of soda. These drinks are designed to replenish the electrolytes that students don't get from government subsidized "meats and vegetables" (if you can call them that)!
First, we really have to stop using the scare term "epidemic" when discussing fatness. When discussing matters of health, the word refers specifically to the wide spread of an infectious disease. There's nothing epidemic about fat.
Second, milk is not biologically appropriate for the majority of Asian, African-American and other non-Causcasian kids, because of lactose intolerance. (Unless the schools have Lactaid milk, which I doubt.) That means that these kids are going to drink water (unlikely) or juice. But juice is absolutely no better for kids, in terms of sugar intake, than soda. Both should be occasional-use beverages.
Further, it's disingenuous, looking at the typical school cafeteria menus, to pretend that the schools are interested in making sure that kids are making good food choices. The menus of the nation's public schools are abysmal, unbalanced, full of refined flours, sugars, fat, cheap and greasy meats, dead canned vegetables without a speck of nutrient value (or taste) left in them and fruits packed in heavy corn syrups or hidden in (highly-sugary) jello, or both. There's no point in yanking soda out of a school and acting like it's meaningful while continuing to serve the meals that are typical school fare.
Lastly, controlling what kids eat and drink is the role of parents. When my parents didn't want me or my siblings to have soda or junk at school, we weren't given money. School lunches were puchased with tickets that were bought with a check from mom. If it's a problem for certain kids to have access to certain foods or drinks, move to a system that makes it easier for parents to have control rather than labeling anything as a "bad" food and forbidding it as an option to everyone. One size does not fit all.
Let's face the fact that we are becoming a lazy, fat nation! Everyone chooses their own fate...I choose to run to help stay trim, parents can choose to help their students play more and watch less TV, and you too can choose what or what not to eat!
Just thinking here, but in terms of sugar and calories, yes milk and juice may be just as bad as soda. However, they offer a myriad of vitamins and minerals that just can't be found in other beverages. Anyway, what's wrong with just plain old water.
Also the sugar in 100% juice is unrefined sugar. The less processing something goes through the better it is for you.
Dreama,
There's another meaning of epidemic:
2. rapid development: a rapid and extensive development or growth, usually of something unpleasant
an epidemic of civil unrest and rioting
If two-thirds of the country is overweight, and one third of our kids are overweight, it is indeed an epidemic.
Perhaps you're right about milk, though. And you're certainly right about the unhealthiness of food served in school cafeterias. We ought to fix that too.
I'd be shocked, though, at parents who advocated unhealthy food for their kids. If they feel so strongly about it, let them pack unhealthy lunches for them.
That's their right.
Yes, there are many problems with the nutritional quality of school lunches, and maybe legislation on soda makes barely a small dent, but at least it's a start and a step towards a healthier direction.
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