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The Milk Wars: Should Milk Be Taken Off the School-Lunch Menu?
Time.com ^ | July 20, 2012 | Alexandra Sifferlin

Posted on 07/24/2012 6:40:50 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks

(Updated) The war on milk has shifted fronts. First it was sugar-laden chocolate milk, which parents and school administrators battled in recent years to remove from school-lunch menus. Now, it’s plain old moo that’s under fire.

On Thursday, a national doctors group petitioned the U.S. government to remove milk as a required food group from the National School Lunch Program, the federally assisted program that has provided lunch to millions of public school kids since 1946. The doctors’ reasoning: milk doesn’t help protect kids’ bones.

The promotion of milk to help build strong bones in kids is, “in effect, the promotion of an ineffective placebo,” writes the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) in its petition [PDF]. “Milk is high in sugar, high in fat and high in animal protein” — all of which counters its purported benefits to bone health, the committee argues.

The PCRM notes that dairy products, including milk, are the No. 1 source of saturated fat in Americans’ diets. Drinking milk for the calcium it contains is therefore a losing strategy, especially since people can get their daily recommended calcium from other, more nutritious foods. And for millions of Americans who are allergic to milk — including 1.3 million children — or intolerant to the lactose it contains, drinking milk carries potentially severe health risks.

“One of the only reasons people talk about dairy, or promote it at all, is because it is going to help build strong bones,” says Dr. Neal Barnard, president of the PCRM. “Research has now made it abundantly clear that milk doesn’t build strong bones. Whether we are talking about children who are forming bones or older people who are trying to keep their bone integrity, milk doesn’t have a beneficial effect on either one.”

(Excerpt) Read more at healthland.time.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bones; bullystate; calcium; children; foodnazis; foodpolice; health; milk; nannystate; nutrition; pcrm; publicschools; vegans; waronfood
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To: TigersEye

In the 1950’s we learned that milk was nature’s most perfect food, with eggs at number two, and meat at number 3.


41 posted on 07/24/2012 9:08:40 AM PDT by Daveinyork
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Milk is probably the most healthy item on school lunch menus. The government approved school lunch which often consists of breaded nuggets of fused chicken parts or cardboard like pizza with greasy peperoni made from boar hogs with meat too fat for anything else and cheese made from that nasty milk is infinitely better.


42 posted on 07/24/2012 9:09:02 AM PDT by The Great RJ
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To: the invisib1e hand

“I’m betting most dairy farmers don’t drink Kool Aid.”
I suspect they do. Dairy farming is tightly regulated, price controlled, and subsidized. Watch what the dairy farmers do if any of this is discontinued.


43 posted on 07/24/2012 9:10:46 AM PDT by Daveinyork
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To: Daveinyork
I was born in '55 so I got the '60s indoctrination.
Trick or Treat for UNICEF and all that.

(even then I thought "why should they get part of my swag?" lol)

44 posted on 07/24/2012 9:12:54 AM PDT by TigersEye (Life is about choices. Your choices. Make good ones.)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Problem is not the food, it’s the schools. Shut them down.


45 posted on 07/24/2012 9:15:31 AM PDT by Lady Lucky (If you believe what you're saying, quit making taxable income.)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
I will say far more milk sold should be lactose free.

NIH says, "An estimated 30 million to 50 million American adults are lactose intolerant." That's 10-17% generally and it's far higher in various ethnic groups.

46 posted on 07/24/2012 9:20:55 AM PDT by newzjunkey (Pontius Pilate 'voters' are arrogant, delusional, lilly-livered collaborators.)
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To: Tax-chick

It’s funny since those “smart-boards” are the least “green” of the options.


47 posted on 07/24/2012 9:23:29 AM PDT by newzjunkey (Pontius Pilate 'voters' are arrogant, delusional, lilly-livered collaborators.)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

The simple solution is to get the government out of the food-forcing business, and let intelligent parents and the local organizations they control decide what their kids will eat.


48 posted on 07/24/2012 9:37:45 AM PDT by Atlas Sneezed (Hold My Beer and Watch This!)
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To: newzjunkey

When it comes down to real-world choices - especially among the “elites” and the taxpayer-supported classes - “green” doesn’t matter nearly as much as “cool,” both literally and figuratively.


49 posted on 07/24/2012 9:44:05 AM PDT by Tax-chick ("Too many birthdays to keep track, and no one willing to take them back." ~NicknamedBob)
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To: DannyTN; ejonesie22
Dihydrogen Monoxide... It's so bad it falls from the sky.

And just think of all the money that could be saved if the Guvment would ban that. Why, everyone knows that dihydrogen monoxide induced deterioration is the major cause of expenditure for infrastructure repair...

By the way, I think I see some rust forming on that new car. And watch out for that pothole...

50 posted on 07/24/2012 11:43:59 AM PDT by NoCmpromiz (John 14:6 is a non-pluralistic comment.)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

My son’s allergic to cow milk and soy, so he gets calcium from spinach and calcium-fortified OJ, which he loves. At 6, he’s as rambunctious and filled with daredevilry as other kids his age and hasn’t broken a bone yet - whereas his friends have.

Point being, responsible parents know what’s best for their kids, take precautions and make adjustments to their kids diets as necessary; and DON’T need the state telling them how to do it!


51 posted on 07/24/2012 11:48:58 AM PDT by ItsOurTimeNow (Can't afford a ticket back from Suffragette City)
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To: Cowboy Bob
Boys who drink this milk ingest the female hormones...and become GAY.

If that were so, the liberals would be pushing for more milk in schools, not less.

52 posted on 07/24/2012 12:40:42 PM PDT by Graybeard58 (Free people, when presented only with evil choices, create other choices.(EternalVigilance))
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Better — kill the school breakfast, lunch, and dinner programs. Make the kids carry their own food from home. Fire everyone associated in any way and any level associated with the program in the schools.


53 posted on 07/24/2012 2:44:38 PM PDT by MasterGunner01 (11)
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To: Daveinyork

when you have to compete with unregulated suppliers who have access to slave labor, in an environment so overly regulated that you need to have a lawyer on staff, a subsidy might just be the only way the playing field can be less tilted against you.


54 posted on 07/24/2012 3:35:14 PM PDT by the invisib1e hand (If Bill Ayers had a son, he'd look like James Holmes.)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

I think that government at all levels should just abandon all pretense and announce that their primary purpose and objective is to suck all the joy out of life, wherever they might find any.


55 posted on 07/24/2012 4:28:03 PM PDT by elkfersupper ( Member of the Original Defiant Class)
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To: the invisib1e hand

Are there unregulated milk suppliers?


56 posted on 07/24/2012 4:56:19 PM PDT by Daveinyork
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To: Daveinyork

I don’t know about Canadian ones but I would suspect Mexican ones are.


57 posted on 07/24/2012 7:33:51 PM PDT by the invisib1e hand (If Bill Ayers had a son, he'd look like James Holmes.)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Thanks for the ping!


58 posted on 07/24/2012 8:56:53 PM PDT by Alamo-Girl
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To: the invisib1e hand

Smuggling milk?


59 posted on 07/25/2012 2:41:02 AM PDT by Daveinyork
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To: Daveinyork
I'm not saying subsidies are by themselves a good idea. I am saying that they may be a bad idea that alleviates the effects of lots of other bad ideas (read: the ridiculous litany of frivolous regulations).

Example: OJ. US producers can't be expected to compete with Brazil; the regulatory costs here are too high. But a way to alleviate the regulatory costs is with a subsidy. It's rank redistribution, but that's the way it is.

Before people automatically dismiss subsidies as a payoff to farmers, they might want to consider the rationale for them to begin with, as it might be legitimate under the circumstances.

60 posted on 07/25/2012 2:50:05 PM PDT by the invisib1e hand (If Bill Ayers had a son, he'd look like James Holmes.)
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