School districts ban chocolate milk

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BOULDER - Ann Cooper is passionate about getting kids to eat and drink healthy. She says that's why she has removed all flavored milk from her school district, sticking strictly with the white stuff.

"I really believe we should not be serving chocolate milk in school. As far as I'm concerned, chocolate milk is soda in drag," Ann Cooper, Boulder Valley Schools' director of nutrition services, said. "Most chocolate milk has 50 percent more calories than white milk."

Cooper says the added calories and sugar add up over the years contributing to obesity and diabetes in kids. She has replaced chocolate, strawberry, and other flavored milk with dispensers with deliver fresh organic milk from Colorado. Boulder is just one of a growing number of districts across the country also banning flavored milk.

"It's unconscionable to teach children that the only way for them to be healthy and have healthy bones is to drink chocolate milk that has so much sugar in it," Cooper said.

Jenna Allen is a dietician with the Western Dairy Association who manages its nutritional affairs. She disagrees with Cooper's opinion of chocolate milk.

"The added sugar that children get is fairly insignificant when you look at the whole day's diet," Allen said. "It provides the same nine essential nutrients as white milk."

Allen says the value of attracting kids to drinking milk of any kind is more valuable than taking away chocolate milk.

"Seventy percent of the milk that's consumed in school is chocolate milk, and they enjoy that milk. They choose that milk and they'll drink that milk," Allen said. "They will drink more milk when it's flavored."

The Western Dairy Association advocates for kids to drink three servings of milk each day to maintain nutrients such as calcium, potassium, and magnesium. The group is also part of a national campaign promoting chocolate milk called, "Raise your hand for chocolate milk."

"For those kids who don't like white milk and won't drink white milk, it helps them get their three servings a day," Allen said.

Cooper says so far the switch has worked. She says there hasn't been a drop-off in milk consumption district wide.

"Organic Colorado milk, it's really cold. It tastes good. It comes in a cup," Cooper said. "It's a about a balanced meal. It's not about chocolate milk."