Another ill-fated government foray into nutrition recommendations. Action Alert!
Reps. G.T. Thompson (R-PA) and Joe Courtney (D-CT) recently introduced the School Milk Nutrition Act of 2015, which seeks to increase dairy consumption in children by mandating low-fat and non-fat flavored milk for each school meal.
This follows changes to the USDA National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs in 2012 that removed whole milk, 2% milk, and flavored 1% milk options from school meals, leaving only plain 1% milk and flavored skim milk.
As usual, there are powerful interests involved: the dairy industry, looking to regain market share, is very much in support of the new bill.
The bill completely ignores the evidence indicating that whole dairy, as opposed to low-fat or non-fat, is the healthier option. Research has shown that consuming whole-fat dairy lowers the risk of diabetes, heart disease, and bowel cancer, and causes less weight gain compared to low-fat and non-fat dairy. The federal government, and the sponsors of this bill, rely on outdated ideas pointing to saturated fat as the enemy despite current research that says otherwise.
Giving children flavored low-fat or non-fat milk adds insult to injury. Flavored milk contains all kinds of additives like high fructose corn syrup and artificial sweeteners like aspartame—a zero-calorie sweetener which Pepsi has just agreed to remove from its diet soda because of well-founded consumer concerns about safety. As we reported earlier, the dairy industry has petitioned the FDA to allow them to include aspartame as an ingredient but not list it on the milk label, even though aspartame is very dangerous and potentially carcinogenic. Aspartame also decreases the ability of the body to absorb tryptophan and reduces serotonin levels. Ten percent of aspartame is methanol which, when heated, converts to formaldehyde which in turn converts to formic acid—a product used to strip epoxy! A fine ingredient to feed our children on a daily basis!
We have also pointed out that chocolate flavoring may interfere with the absorption of calcium. It also covers up milk that is not fresh.
Finally, current government policy and the recommendations of this new bill ignore the host of problems that arise from factory farm dairy production. As we reported in 2012, a report from Harvard suggests that milk from factory farms may be associated with hormone-related cancers because of the industrial agricultural practice of milking a cow too far into her pregnancy. On top of that, pasteurization, especially ultra-pasteurization, destroys many of milk’s health benefits. (See more on this in our companion story).
In our earlier report, we noted that the very healthiest milk would be raw, grass-fed, organic, and from a cow that is only milked for the first six months after giving birth. The problem is that federal policy, as evidenced by the FDA’s vendetta against raw milk, make it nearly impossible for most health-conscious Americans (let alone school lunch programs feeding millions of children) to drink healthy milk.
Like the widespread criticism of the government’s Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, it is clear that the government’s thinking on nutrition is woefully outdated. Government is too slow to pick up new research and too quick to listen to special interests to serve as a guide for our health.
Rather than telling us what to eat, government at all levels should instead stop gagging free speech about nutrition, an issue we’ve covered extensively in the Pulse of Natural Health. It is absurd, on the one hand, to be subjected to government health guidelines that are obsolete and likely tainted with crony influence, and on the other hand to be prevented from hearing about the latest research, sharing nutrition advice with friends without a special license, or consulting the nutritionist of our choice.
Action Alert! Write to your legislators in Congress and urge them NOT to support government handouts to the dairy industry at the expense of our children’s health! Please send your message immediately.
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Hi, Vitamins/good oils/herbs/minerals etc may greatly help. Garlic may help keep mosquitoes away and help kill bacteria/fungi/viruses/parasites. Fish oil may help thin the blood and help the immune system. I had no colds/flu for more than 20 years due to 2000 mg of fish oil a day. The military is getting lots of vaccines and 3000 calorie war meals that may clog blood vessels which may have gluten/dairy/soy/sugar/GMO. If the military is to be healthy…they may need supplements which are awesome help. People need the freedom to take supplements which keep them going strong/healthy. Alternative natural help is awesome. May it’s use always be protected.
I agree. I quit drinking skim and lower fat milk many years ago when I realized that it was just like drinking sugar water. The general rule of thumb is that when fat is removed, sugar is increased. I stay away from lowfat foods. I only drink whole fat or whole fat raw milk from the farm.
More people are realizing the benefits of healthy foods. Unfortunately, it’s consumer spending that will drive the fastest change.
AGREE. MANY VITAMINS REQUIRE TO TAKE WITH A FOOD, MEAL THAT IS HIGH IN SATURATED FATS IN ORDER TO BE
ABSORBED.. THERE IS ALSO MANY RX MEDICATIONS REQUIRE SAME. OTHERWISE, BODY DOESNT ABSORB AND
YOU GET NO BENEFIT. Too many people been Fooled about
Fats and assumed ALL FATS BAD FOR YOU, Which isnt true.
Unlabeled aspartame in milk? Truly shameful and disgusting. We need to protest outside of schools across the nation.
Unfortunately this has been the case for months on end now. A year or two ago they allowed artificial sweeteners in all milk and there is no label. If you see “Milk.” with a period behind it, it means it has been sweetened. The only reason they have to put sweetener in the milk is because of how disgusting it is (you don’t want to know).
Here is some more information: h t t p : / / w w w . naturalnews . com/039244_milk_aspartame_FDA_petition.html ~ “U.S. dairy industry petitions FDA to approve aspartame as hidden, unlabeled additive in milk, yogurt, eggnog and cream
Monday, February 25, 2013”
Mg in chocolate may help absorb the Ca. Milk is low in Mg usually. I only drank chocolate milk when young..skipped the unflavored milk that tasted sour at school. Now I can’t drink any dairy…due to Casein etc in it.
It’s bad enough they put the poison in the food, but they don’t allow you to know. Fight for labeling especially for GMO products. Also, check out the companies Monsanto owns. I ban them all.
I’m right with you, I just wish I could ban these crooks from life itself. 🙂
Why not raise our Children to be Healthy and perhaps illness will not be killing us all around
Because they can’t make any money that way.
The incorporated crime ring that is acting as our “Government” only has the intention of poisoning us, stripping us of our rights under the guise of protection, murdering us, caging us, and making money off of our corpses. They have no intention to do anything good, their only intent is to enrich themselves off the backs of We the People and off the Corpses of all life on this planet.
The corrupt organized crime ring that is the U.S. Incorporated “government” is the worst scourge on the planet earth, quiet literally poisoning all life on the planet. The Number One Threat to life in this world.
This is from the “Health Ranger” at NaturalNews: “If an industry is pushing to hide aspartame in its products, what else is it already hiding?
How about the pus content of its dairy products? How about its inhumane treatment of animals who are subjected to torture conditions and pumped full of genetically engineered hormones? How about the fact that homogenization and pasteurization turn a whole food into a dietary nightmare that promotes obesity, autoimmune disorders and cardiovascular disease? There are lots of dirty little secrets in the dairy industry of course, and that doesn’t even get into the secret closed-door conversations to encourage the FDA to destroy the competition of raw milk. The only rational answer to all this is to stop buying and consuming processed dairy products, period!”
More information: h t t p : / / w w w . naturalnews .
com/039244_milk_aspartame_FDA_petition.html ~ “U.S. dairy industry
petitions FDA to approve aspartame as hidden, unlabeled additive in
milk, yogurt, eggnog and cream
Monday, February 25, 2013”
Brought to you by the same Repuglican a$$hole$ who voted that pizza is a vegetable because it’s smeared with TOMATO sauce when TOMATOES are a FRUIT!!! I’m STIIL looking for those “pizza plants” at my local nursery so I can “grow my own!”
Home schooling looks like the better option all the more!
It’s all about money, power & politics!
Which leads to it being all about Poison, Death & Extinction.
Poor Humans, they’ll never see it coming.
So they have decided they aren’t making us sick enough early enough and wish to start as early as possible now. They weren’t satisfied with just messing with the food rules and getting schools to stop allowing moms to send what they wanted their children to eat, now they have decided that loading them down with chemicals is their right.