After hearing about the chocolate milk contest that happened at the community school I attended, at first I was proud that my school had won! When looking at all the details, it appeared to be a bad idea...
The school system had entered into a chocolate milk drinking contest against other schools in order to win $15,000 from the Midwest Dairy Association. This was a fun way to have the students participate in helping the school. The students were trying to see how many cartons of chocolate milk they could drink in about a month's time frame. Hearing about this contest, a couple of questions came to mind...
How does this become a bad idea? When I found out chocolate milk has just as much sugar as pop! Looking at the different figures including chocolate milk having 3 teaspoons of sugar per carton and each student averaging a little over 3 cartons per day is promoting unhealthy habits.
Since our society likes to blame somebody for effects, who is to blame for all this sugar in the schools?
If you look at the Dairy Association, they want to make money like everyone else. If it had been white milk, there would be some extreme milk drinkers that would get really into it and try a gallon challenge, but I don't think there would be 62,289 cartons drank at one school alone. Students like chocolate milk. The Dairy Association's role in this contest is to promote milk drinking so they can make money. In this sense, I don't blame them for the "unhealthy" use of chocolate milk. They are a business trying to make a profit and this was a very creative and successful way to do it.
So then does it come to the schools?
When reading the article about the chocolate milk promotion throughout the schools, I think the teachers did a good job of incorporating it into their curriculum through speech presentations, research about chocolate milk, and having the whole school participate. It also seemed that the school was unaware of the sugar or unhealthy milk they were promoting. They probably looked at the chocolate milk contest as a healthy alternative to pop or sugar juices. I am not a chocolate milk drinker, so I was not aware how much sugar was in chocolate milk. This could be the same for the administrators, lunch personal, or whoever agreed to the contest.
I think the problem lies in a bigger issue. We all stick up our noses at the school food because it doesn't taste good and it is not as nutritious as we would like. However, I think the schools are doing the best they can. They have a tight budget, as well. If the school is going to provide lunch/breakfast/snacks/etc., they have the responsibility to keep the meals healthy and nutritous. I believe it would be beneficial to have a nutritionist as part of the school staff. This person would be able to spend their time examining the menu, finding sources for nutritous food that can be prepared by the lunch/breakfast cooks, and could educate the school and students on what is healthy. This person could possibly serve as a health teacher as well. Then, maybe next time there will be a white milk drinking contest for the schools?
The school system had entered into a chocolate milk drinking contest against other schools in order to win $15,000 from the Midwest Dairy Association. This was a fun way to have the students participate in helping the school. The students were trying to see how many cartons of chocolate milk they could drink in about a month's time frame. Hearing about this contest, a couple of questions came to mind...
How does this become a bad idea? When I found out chocolate milk has just as much sugar as pop! Looking at the different figures including chocolate milk having 3 teaspoons of sugar per carton and each student averaging a little over 3 cartons per day is promoting unhealthy habits.
Since our society likes to blame somebody for effects, who is to blame for all this sugar in the schools?
If you look at the Dairy Association, they want to make money like everyone else. If it had been white milk, there would be some extreme milk drinkers that would get really into it and try a gallon challenge, but I don't think there would be 62,289 cartons drank at one school alone. Students like chocolate milk. The Dairy Association's role in this contest is to promote milk drinking so they can make money. In this sense, I don't blame them for the "unhealthy" use of chocolate milk. They are a business trying to make a profit and this was a very creative and successful way to do it.
So then does it come to the schools?
When reading the article about the chocolate milk promotion throughout the schools, I think the teachers did a good job of incorporating it into their curriculum through speech presentations, research about chocolate milk, and having the whole school participate. It also seemed that the school was unaware of the sugar or unhealthy milk they were promoting. They probably looked at the chocolate milk contest as a healthy alternative to pop or sugar juices. I am not a chocolate milk drinker, so I was not aware how much sugar was in chocolate milk. This could be the same for the administrators, lunch personal, or whoever agreed to the contest.
I think the problem lies in a bigger issue. We all stick up our noses at the school food because it doesn't taste good and it is not as nutritious as we would like. However, I think the schools are doing the best they can. They have a tight budget, as well. If the school is going to provide lunch/breakfast/snacks/etc., they have the responsibility to keep the meals healthy and nutritous. I believe it would be beneficial to have a nutritionist as part of the school staff. This person would be able to spend their time examining the menu, finding sources for nutritous food that can be prepared by the lunch/breakfast cooks, and could educate the school and students on what is healthy. This person could possibly serve as a health teacher as well. Then, maybe next time there will be a white milk drinking contest for the schools?
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