In which I defend junk food
Oh yeah – I’m going there. I know it’s not popular right now, but I am going there anyway.
Remember when I said I was contrary?
So everyone I know is on a health food kick. A diet kick. A Real Food kick.
This is fantastic for Jamie Oliver. Fantastic for the authors who usher in the next big trend in eating, and the companies that peddle all the right foods. It is even – possibly - good for America.
I’m certainly not against healthy eating. Bring on the apples! I am, however, solidly against trends of pretty much any sort. And in my very humble opinion, a lot of the food discussion we see and hear right now falls in to that trendy category.
This week alone, I have read over a dozen blog and/or Facebook posts regarding the sugar content of chocolate milk.
If you, too, have been told that chocolate milk contains more sugar than a can of soda, allow me to set the record straight. It does not.
Does. Not.
I have compared chocolate milk from my local public school, Hershey’s, Nestle’s, Dean’s, and 2 store brands. I’m taking the one with the highest sugar content and for an 8 ounce drink, it contains 25 grams of sugar.
Next up, the soft drinks. Coke – 39 grams of sugar, Mt. Dew – 46 grams, Sprite – 38 grams.
To be fair, the cans of soda are 12 ounces, so let’s make it ‘even’ – or at least biased in the same way that I’m sure this study was done. Highest sugar content milk vs. lowest sugar content soda.
8 ounce serving of chocolate milk – 25 grams of sugar
8 ounce serving of Sprite – 25 grams of sugar
Exactly the same. Very interesting.
Oh, except the milk also has calcium, potassium, and Vitamins A, C, and D.
The soda – not so much.
Does anyone else remember a simpler time, when we didn’t panic over milk in school lunches? Apparently that time was at least as recent as 2006, when this study was released showing that chocolate milk is actually good for you. <gasp!>
Is chocolate milk the best possible choice? Probably not. But equating it to soda, which contains so much phosphorus it literally sucks the calcium out of your bones, is just absurd. Check out this WebMD article, which not only explains why soda is bad, it also explains why milk is good. Who’d have thought that would be a novel idea?
Don’t fall for these lies, people!
I am all for watching what I eat. I also believe that ‘everything in moderation’ are words to eat by.
In my house, I avoid artificial food colors. They make my kids hyper and prone to meltdowns and they give me dizzy spells. I avoid high fructose corn syrup. I don’t buy Doritos, or ‘juice’ boxes, or candy.
My theory is that if it wasn’t a food 100 years ago, then it isn’t good for me now. Real food, please.
And just so there’s no confusion, by that I do not mean REAL food.
But. BUT. I also don’t care if my kids eat cheese doodles, or cupcakes, or suckers.
Every day, day in and day out, they eat fruit. They eat green, leafy vegetables. They eat whole grains. They eat fiber. I add flax seed to my [homemade] bread. I serve chicken more than beef.
I make brownies with spinach in them, for Pete’s sake.
And you know what? They know about the spinach. They love it, and they help me make them.
We have our own garden, and we eat the fruits and vegetables that we grow. My daughters help me prepare our meals, so they know what they are eating. And I tell them why carrots are good for them, so they know that what they put into their body is important.
In my house, that is enough.
We are not an obese nation because we eat hamburgers. We are obese because we eat double quarter pounders with super-sized fries and an extra large soda, and we do it several times a week.
Our children are not overweight because they drink chocolate milk at school. They are overweight because we feed them cocoa puffs for breakfast, Lunchables for a snack, and park them in front of a television set or a video game until dinner. Which is most likely more of the same high calorie, high fat, ready-to-eat junk they’ve had the rest of the day.
We are fat and unhealthy because we never tell ourselves no.
People are complaining about the nutritional content of school lunches, but let me tell you, the nutritional content of those 5 meals is government regulated. The other 16 meals they eat every week? Totally up to us. And sorry to say it, but we are the ones making the bad choices here.
The bad choice isn’t drinking chocolate milk. The bad choices are those other 16 meals a week.
A bad choice is blaming chocolate milk for our sustenance ills.
And if I dare say, another bad choice is jumping on bandwagons, nutritional or otherwise.
To put it bluntly, chocolate milk has been around for a very long time. Thousands of years. Far longer than we have been a fat nation full of fat children. Somehow my parents, and grandparents, and great-great-great-grandparents were able to drink chocolate milk. And you know what? My children will continue the tradition. If that’s the worst thing they pump into their little bodies, I will consider myself a smashing success.
And now I’m off. A bowl of ice cream awaits.
Facebook comments:
By Darcie - Such The Spot, April 23, 2010 @ 10:37 am
Great points. Especially the “we are fat and unhealthy because we never tell ourselves no” part. So. true.
I am in the camp for healthier meals at school though. Yes, they are government regulated, but according to those regulations french fries count as a vegetable.
I don’t blame our obesity issues on the government; you had it right when you said we should take responsibility for that. But with that said, it would be great if we could get healthy, real food choices in the school lunch program. No more frozen, concocted nuggets. No more of that sugar-laden yogurt. No more french toast sticks on brunch-for-lunch day. Chocolate milk can stay, but I think it should be a treat, available once or twice a week.
I’m a big fan of the salad bar. Grilled cheese on whole wheat bread. Tacos or pizza, both topped with loads of veggies. These are the choices I wish were available. Real food. Not food products. Because I can manage what we eat at home, but it would be nice if my kids could choose from a variety of healthy options on the rare occasion when they buy lunch at school, too. Right now, I minimize those occasions because the choices are so poor.
I’m with you though. We need to stop asking the government to fix problems that start because we, as a country, can’t take responsibility for making good choices at home. And I’m not just talking about food here…
.-= Darcie – Such The Spot´s last blog ..TMI: A Post Midnight Rendezvous =-.
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By Soliloquy, April 23, 2010 @ 11:48 am
Girls, there’s a simple solution here. Just ask yourself, “Would I prefer this Ho Ho over a glass of wine?” and I think you’ll find the answer is the same every time.
At least it is for me. Wine has been around for LONGER than 100 years…. so it is clearly the healthiest choice.
Any other questions?
.-= Soliloquy´s last blog ..Who Can I Blame??? =-.
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By Jen, April 23, 2010 @ 12:41 pm
Amen sister! I always wonder WTH is being served in other places because our school lunches are actually pretty good. And we NEVER have fries!
Have you seen that teacher’s blog where she is eating school lunch every day? She says that everything comes in frozen and is like microwaved to heat up for the kids. OMG! That does NOT happen here.
A little junk food never hurt anyone. It’s the LITTLEpart that we can’t seem to get down.
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By Jen, April 23, 2010 @ 12:44 pm
Here is the blog.
http://fedupwithschoollunch.blogspot.com/
Nice to see that today someone reports that their school lunches aren’t all pre-packed.
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By Heather - Hopelessly Flawed, April 23, 2010 @ 12:57 pm
Thanks for the link Jen! That is an interesting blog. I was glad to see that today a teacher posted about his cafeteria not being all gross food!
We have pretty good lunches here. We do have french fries (about once a month) but they are baked, not fried, and they are served with other fruits and veggies. We have things like chicken nuggets, too, but they are also baked (they don’t use fryers). Are there healthier possibilities? For sure. But I think they do a good job of balancing healthy food with things that the kids will actually eat and staying in their limited budget as well. It’s not an easy task.
And our chocolate milk is skim.
.-= Heather – Hopelessly Flawed´s last blog ..In which I defend junk food =-.
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By Darcie - Such The Spot, April 23, 2010 @ 1:10 pm
Soliloquy for president!
.-= Darcie – Such The Spot´s last blog ..TMI: A Post Midnight Rendezvous =-.
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By Lady Jane, April 23, 2010 @ 1:55 pm
ooooh, I so totally agree! You’re brave for saying it though. LOL
We are a country that loves to blame someONE or someTHING else for all of our problems. You’re overweight because McDonald’s uses trans fats! Your kids are unhealthy because school lunch is bad! What happened to personal responsibility? You’re fat because you eat crap and sit on your arse all day!
My Republican flag is waving, isn’t it?
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By Heather, April 23, 2010 @ 2:48 pm
No complaints about chocolate milk here. I approve anything chocolate, usually.
But I was one who complained about school lunches this week. And yep government regulated, I guess. As a child, I loved my lunches at school, they really were cooked! Anyway, back to the girls’ lunch. I’m spending $5 a day (more for an a la carte items) for these lunches. At the least I would imagine they wouldn’t be microwaved. And either rock hard or ice cold or so the girls tell me.
They get breakfast at school, too. Spoiled milk and moldy stuff. (Taking this part with a grain of salt). But I do remember the day that I joined them for breakfast and the toast was hard as a piece of wood! So I’m thinking that our school meals require some investigation. And possibly a boycott.
I’m definitely not a food nazi. Though wondering about those artificial colorings and HFCS. I haven’t even begun to look at that. And maybe I should.
Chocolate milk though? Good here. If it weren’t for chocolate milk, the girls wouldn’t drink much milk at all.
.-= Heather´s last blog ..It’s Earth Day 2010, and this is what I’m doing about it. Or green and crunchy missed me. Or I just FAIL. =-.
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By Becca - Our Crazy Boys, April 24, 2010 @ 12:22 pm
School lunches make me gag!!
I completely agree with you – especially on the lunch thing. I would love to take a break from packing lunches once or twice a week, but it’s not going to happen as long as they’re serving baked corn dogs and french fries, or “chicken” patty on a hard whole wheat bun for lunch.
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By Terra, May 1, 2010 @ 12:36 pm
Very nice post. I have to say we are opposites. I cook very healthy meals, we eat a lot of fresh fruits and veggies – HOWEVER, I always have candy, juice boxes and lots of the JUNK on hand…Thankfully the girls have learned to make great choices and tey often pick an apple over a fruit roll up – but knowing they are making the choice is the best for me!
I do agree that it is rediculous to pick apart milk when their is so much other junk out there. We buy Choc milk once a month and we LOVE IT!
.-= Terra´s last blog ..Once I knew… =-.
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By Dena, May 14, 2010 @ 12:19 am
Thanks, Heather!
A friend of mine made a statement on Facebook that flavored milk has more sugar than soda, and that the school cafeteria should only serve white milk. Being a dairy farmer’s wife, I replied with some interesting facts about flavored milk – including the fact that flavored milk does NOT contain more sugar than soda and that is actually has all nine essential nutrients in it as white milk. Lowfat flavored milk contains the same grams of fat as white milk & many sports teams are switching to choc. milk instead of sports drinks. Hope you enjoyed your ice cream. Thanks again for setting the record straight!
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By Marybeth Judy, March 20, 2011 @ 3:13 pm
good blog!! chocolate milk (sugar is added to a product already naturally sweetened) is not the challenge. it is one more sugar sweetened addition to the overall diets of most (not all) American children who aren’t moving around much. serve it at home please, not in our public schools. See the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 84:274-288. google it-it’s free on-line.
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