Junk food guidelines include milk

by Nicole Weston, Posted Dec 11th 2005 @ 6:34PM

milk

Junk food is generally considered to be any food that has a very low nutritional value. Often this comes in conjunction with being high in calories and fat, as unusually high fat content can nutritionally counter balance any benefit from the product, like a thin dark chocolate coating on a fat-packed candy bar. The label of “junk food” is generally applied only to processed foods – chips, sodas, candies – though the term’s definition does not specifically limit its use.

Illinois has decided to apply the term more generally based on nutritional standards instead of labels. This is a much more practical way to determine what can or cannot be made available in schools than sorting through each potential food item individually. Recommended cutoffs are calories from fat exceeding 35% (excluding nuts and seeds), calories from saturated fat exceeding 10% and total calories exceeding 200 per package for individually packaged foods. This also means that foods that are generally accepted as non-junk food may not be permitted in schools due to high fat contents, though processed, lower-fat foods can still make their way in. Whole milk has made the list of unacceptable foods, with 150 calories and approximately 8 grams of fat per 8-ounce serving, more than half of which is saturated.

Source

Filed Under: Newspapers, Ingredients
Tags: dairy

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

12-11-2005 @6:51PM M-L said... Not to turn this political, but this seems to be more of Illinois' governor "BLAG"'s brilliant work. He cuts school budgets, sells off pensions for instant revenue, etc. So, not surprising that they've made milk "unhealthy" in school.

***ROLL EYES LIKE MAD***
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12-11-2005 @9:21PM Tammy said... Many schools across the country haven't offered whole milk for years. I'm not saying this makes Illinois right, I'm just saying it doesn't make Illinois unusual.
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12-12-2005 @12:16AM Berkana said... The dairy industry doesn't want you to know, but milk does not do a body good. Cow's milk is full of growth hormones meant for baby cows; no wonder milk consumption is so strongly correlated with breast and prostate cancer. In particular, IGF-1 (insulin-like growth factor 1) is known to cause cancer in adult somatic cells. The notion of milk being very bad for health seems so alient to most people because we've been indoctrinated into this notion that "milk does the body good". It does not, unless you're an infant drinking your mother's milk. It doesn't even do your bones any good; milk consumption is (much to my surprise) correlated with weak bones. Calcium is correlated with bone health, and most people then jump to the conclusion that since dairy has lots of calcium, it must be good for your bones. Too bad it's not true.

(That site recommends going vegan, which I am not, but their point about the studies regarding milk and bone strength and cancer are legit, and often hushed up by the dairy industry's lobbying and advertisement campaigns.)
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12-12-2005 @1:51PM extramsg said... Here, Berkana, since you're tossing out propaganda from biased sources, here's the other side:

http://www.dairymax.com/rBGH.htm

And here's a semi-scholarly look at the issue of calcium and milk from Harvard:

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/calcium.html

The conclusion is that milk is a decent and convenient source, though certainly not the only source, of calcium. In the first 30 years of one's life, calcium intake seems to be fairly important.

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