Whole Milk back in School Cafeterias

Well, finally some sanity in the dietary guidelines for public school cafeterias. Students can now, once again, drink whole milk at school. As they always did, and always should have been able to do. CNN and other outlets reported yesterday: Whole milk now allowed in school lunches as Trump signs bill reversing limits.

Whole milk could be coming to your local school cafeteria for the first time in more than a decade. On Wednesday, President Donald Trump signed a bill that allows schools participating in the National School Lunch Program to serve whole and 2% milk alongside fat-free and low-fat versions. The move comes a week after the US Department of Health and Human Services released new US dietary guidelines that highlight whole-fat dairy products, a recommendation that has received mixed reviews from nutritionists and medical experts.

The new legislation, which passed Congress last year by unanimous consent, rolls back US Department of Agriculture rules approved by the Obama administration that required milk served in schools to be fat-free or low-fat, part of efforts to fight the childhood obesity epidemic. The new law also allows nondairy beverages that are “nutritionally equivalent” to fluid milk to be offered, such as fortified plant-based milks.

I have more than a bit of experience with school cafeteria policy and the federal food guidelines after my time in school administration, which included a couple years of work redesigning a school cafeteria after we withdrew from the federal school lunch program. America's war on fat and the misguided attacks on whole milk as a contributor to childhood weight and health problems has been a colossal failure. 

Let's be clear -- the fat content in whole milk does not make people fat. And, to add to that misunderstanding, skim milk is not only rather disgusting, but ironically is likely worse for people with weight and blood sugar problems because without the natural fat in the milk, the sugar content is actually increased, and the body turns excess sugar into fat. 

So, the prohibition of whole milk in school cafeterias was nothing short of ignorant misguided nonsense, and it never should have been a policy mandate.