School Cafeterias Might Serve Whole Milk Again

WASHINGTON—A bipartisan group of lawmakers is pushing to bring a banned substance back to schools: whole milk.

A bill approved Tuesday by the House Education and Workforce Committee in a 26-13 vote would allow schools to offer whole and 2% milk. Supporters, including the dairy industry and more than 100 lawmakers, say that children are more likely to drink milk when it tastes better to them. Opponents say children can get the same nutrients from lower-fat milk while keeping saturated fat in check.

"We have seen students opt out of consuming milk altogether if they don't have access to a variety that they enjoy," Rep. G.T. Thompson (R., Pa.), the chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, said during Tuesday's debate. "Let's face it: the only way to benefit from milk's essential nutrients is to consume it."

Schools participating in the Agriculture Department's school meals program haven't been permitted to serve either whole milk—which has 3.25% milk fat—or 2% milk, since 2012, when new rules went into effect intended to align school offerings with the country's dietary guidelines. Those recommendations advise that children over the age of two should consume either nonfat or 1% milk as part of an effort to limit how much saturated fat they consume.

Opponents of the milk legislation said lawmakers shouldn't be meddling with the recommendations crafted by nutrition officials.

"It's vital that any nutrition standards are guided by science, not politicians," said Rep. Bobby Scott of Virginia, the top Democrat on the House Education committee.

But fellow Democratic Rep. Kim Schrier of Washington, a pediatrician, said offering additional milk choices is likely to encourage children to choose milk over another, less healthy beverage.

"I would much rather have children drinking milk, even whole milk, than juice," said Schrier, a co-sponsor of the bill.

For the dairy industry, the push to offer whole milk in schools is part of an effort to ensure that students grow into milk-drinking adults. Whole and 2% milk are the most commonly sold varieties, according to the USDA, so students are most used to their taste at home, according to dairy industryofficials.

"Kids in school are where the milk drinkers and consumers of tomorrow are formed," said Peter Vitaliano, chief economist at the National Milk Producers Federation.

Sales of drinking milk are declining as fewer people eat cereal at home in the morning, while sales of other dairy products such as cheese and powdered milk and whey have increased, he said.

"Like farmers producing any commodity, they're very interested in maintaining and growing sales for their products," he said.

But Meghan Maroney, who leads federal child-nutrition programs at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a food and health watchdog group, said most children already consume too much saturated fat, which would be exacerbated with the addition of higher-fat milk.

"Congress should not be reversing this hard-fought win by making school meals less healthy by allowing whole milk," she said.

Much of the debate around whole milk centers on the question of whether fat from dairy products is different from saturated fat coming from other foods.

Some researchers have conducted studies showing that full-fat dairy products haven't led to a higher risk of weight gain in children and may help them feel full more quickly.

"For a long time we lumped all saturated fats together. The story is more complicated than that," said Erin Hennessy, a child-nutrition researcher at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University. "People are becoming a little bit more open to the idea of whole milk," she said.

The committee working on the next set of national dietary guidelines has said it would look at the question of whether the food source of saturated fat has implications for heart disease and the relationship between milk consumption and risks of obesity and diabetes.

The national dietary guidelines and recommendations from the American Heart Association still advise that children over age 2 consume low-fat or fat-free milk. These are lower in calories and saturated fat, which the AHA says can increase cholesterol and boost the risk of heart disease and strokes.

Some groups, including the nutrition arm of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, said there isn't enough evidence yet to overturn the official guidelines.

Some nutrition researchers have said a bigger factor in determining whether children will drink milk is whether it is flavored, for example with chocolate. The Agriculture Department is currently deciding whether to eliminate flavored milk from elementary and possibly middle schools to cut down on added sugars.

The USDA is required by law to set standards for food and beverages served to children at school that align with the country's dietary guidelines. Roughly 30 million students participate in the government's school-meals program, typically at public and charter schools that get reimbursed for some of the meal costs.