Editorial: Let them drink (whole) milk

Making federal policy decisions based on the ever-changing science of nutrition means mistakes are inevitable and corrections will be needed. A case-in-point is a federal nutrition law that restricts schoolkids’ access to more flavorful and filling milk based on now-outdated science. That restriction should be lifted. Congress ought to pass U.S. Rep. Glenn Thompson’s Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act, which would restore healthy full-fat milk to public school cafeterias.

In 2010, based in part on the assumption that dietary fat is the greatest enemy of good health, the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act limited milk offerings in public schools to skim and 1% fat, which have all the nutrients of whole milk but with less fat: zero and 2.5 grams per cup versus about 8 grams. Proponents argued that dietary fat becomes artery-clogging body fat; offering less fat in school would, therefore, lead to healthier kids.

First, that hasn’t happened. All sources and studies concur that childhood obesity in America has gotten worse since 2010, rising from roughly 17% to nearly 20%. And over the past 10 to 15 years, studies have noted declines of more than 10% in the amount of milk distributed in schools, and consumed by students.

More important, the science on which the policy was based doesn’t hold up. It is now generally acknowledged that processed sugar is a greater threat to health, especially cardiovascular health, than dietary fat, and even saturated fat, such as that found in milk. While low-fat diets were the American nutritional orthodoxy from the 1950s onward, sugar consumption multiplied — and so did rates of cardiovascular disease.

Sugar also has an addictive quality that dietary fat does not. It creates a craving for more that multiplies its negative effects.

With regard to milk, the anti-whole-milk argument depends on the false assumption that skim or 1% milk simply replaces whole milk in a person’s diet. Because low-fat milk is less filling, however, one study showed that people who consume it replace the lost calories with other sources, especially carbohydrates, such as processed sugar, and therefore have worse overall health outcomes. Another study linked whole milk consumption to a lower incidence of diabetes.

All that means the 2010 school milk standards that allowed added-sugar flavored milks like chocolate and strawberry, while banning whole milk, were counter-productive at best. They encourage sugar consumption and discourage healthier fat consumption. All kinds of white milk contain 12 grams of naturally occurring sugar per cup, but the least-sweet chocolate milk adds at least another 50%. Some brands add more than 150%. 

The Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act would remove the federal thumb from the scales and allow a healthy and wholesome kind of milk back into school cafeterias. Let them drink (whole) milk.