Until recently I had no knowledge of the chocolate milk debates going on in schools. I have found out that schools are removing chocolate milk from their hot lunch programs because they don’t believe it’s nutritious enough. After doing some research, I believe that chocolate milk is good for schools and it should be served in school hot lunches because even though there are extra added sugars, you will still be getting the amount of protein and calcium needed daily.

Chocolate milk contains extra added sugars and fats, but on the other hand, did you know that it can be used as a great workout drink? Allison Aubrey from The Salt, a food blog run by NPR’s Science Desk says, “a few, small exercise studies have found that chocolate milk can help boost endurance after intense workouts. Research also suggests that the protein in milk speeds up the time it takes for muscles to recover.” Therefore, chocolate milk contributes to the well being of an athlete. One might argue that the sugar is still an issue in chocolate milk, but regular white milk already has 14 grams of natural sugar, and chocolate milk has 22 grams of sugar in it. Under these conditions chocolate milk only has 8 grams more sugar than regular white milk. BBC News Health says at the most each day women should consume 50 grams of sugar and men should consume 70 grams of sugar. If a woman were to drink one glass of chocolate milk, that would still be less than half of the sugars she is supposed to drink a day. BBC News Health argues that people consume about 22 teaspoons of sugar, which is equal to 90 grams of sugar per day. Chocolate milk may contribute to those sugars, but it isn’t the only sugars people consume. And you have to remember that 14 grams of sugar out of 22 grams of sugar in chocolate milk are made of natural sugars.

Regardless of the extra added sugars and calories in chocolate milk, you still get the 9 essential nutrients needed. The 9 essential nutrients are calcium, potassium, magnesium, vitamin A, phosphorus, and vitamin D. Chocolate milk is also a better alternative to soda. Liz Neporent wrote on ABC news, “flavored milk is far less sugary and tends to have fewer calories and more nutrition than beverages like soda,” said Keith Ayoob, associate clinical professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the Albert Einstein School of Medicine in NYC. Thence, if you were to compare chocolate milk to some of the other options at hot lunch then it isn’t a threat at all! After some schools removed chocolate milk from some schools, children held their thirst until the end of the day, and they’d get a soda or anything they wanted at home, just because they couldn’t have chocolate milk. Soda has many more calories and sugars added to it than chocolate milk does, and it definitely doesn’t have the 9 essential nutrients. According to ABC news, 70% of milk is chocolate milk, and by removing chocolate milk, milk consumption went from 64% to 32%. Therefore, removing chocolate milk doesn’t save the kids from health issues, it endangers them because they are tempted to get even more unhealthy beverages. It is likely that kids will consume less protein and calcium if they don’t have chocolate milk because they will only drink chocolate milk.

Jamie Oliver says, “chocolate milk is just soda with drag.” It is likely, but I disagree because Sharon Tanenbaum from Everyday health claims “all milk is packed with nutrients, no matter what flavor.” Which is a true fact, especially after they’ve made the reformulated chocolate milk. Reformulated chocolate milk has only 130 calories and 22 grams of sugar. Dean’s foods use sucrose from beets and sugarcane in their milk instead of sugar and fructose. ABC news tested the new reformulated milk from Dean’s foods and compared it to the “old” chocolate milk. Two little girls said they liked the “old” chocolate milk better because it was more sugary and had more flavor. But they said they would rather have, the more watered down milk than not having chocolate milk at all. Nearly 70% of milk sold in schools are chocolate milk, when it was removed 6.8% less kids decided not to take hot lunch. In some cases, food experts believed if they do ? of white milk, visible in coolers, kids would think that it’s “cool” to get something different than everybody else and get white milk. Well the idea did work, 161 more white milk cartons were sold, but 30% of them were thrown out. Presumably, it was a good idea, but the kids still aren’t going to drink as much white milk as they do chocolate milk.

In conclusion, the new reformulated version of chocolate milk is a lot healthier than the old formula. And chocolate milk isn’t all bad because of it’s 9 essential nutrients! So help keep chocolate milk in schools, and just remember that if chocolate milk is removed from schools, it is just one less option of how to get your daily protein and calcium.