Bill Would Ban Connecticut Childcare Providers From Serving Whole Milk

A new bill
making its way through the Connecticut legislature
would ban daycare centers and home childcare providers from
serving whole milk or 2% milk to the kids in their care. Setting
aside for a moment the sheer lunacy of the proposed law’s premise,
I’d like to point out that it’s also based on an incredibly faulty
understanding of nutrition. 

I rarely drink dairy, but when I do I reach for whole or 2% milk
before skim or nonfat varieties. Whole milk
is the least processed. Skim milk—you know, the “healthy”
option everyone was supposed to switch to at some point in the
1990s—is made by separating and removing the fat from whole milk,
which leaves the remaining product a shade of bluish-gray. To make
it look palatable, and replace lost protein, milk powder is added
back in, via a high-temp, high-pressure process that causes the
cholesterol in skim milk to oxidize. Oxidized cholesterol is
carcinogenic and has been shown in
to promote arterial plaque formation. Oh, and because skimming
the fat strips milk of crucial vitamins A and D, synthetic (i.e.,
less bioavailable) versions of these vitamins are added back into
the milk—a sort of pointless procedure anyway, considering our
bodies can’t absorb these fat-soluble vitamins properly without
fat. 

Commercial whole milk, while still somewhat processed, is a lot
closer to cow’s milk in its natural state. No oxidized cholesterol,
no need to dye it back to a natural-looking color or add synthetic
vitamins. Yes, it has nearly double the calories of nonfat milk—150
per cup, compared to about 80 calories in a cup of skim. But
calories aren’t everything. Whole milk is richer in protein and
fats, which promote satiety and fullness, and feeling full and
satisfied longer makes people (including kids) less likely to
overeat later.  

That’s not the only thing fats in milk are good for. They also
help slow the release of sugars into the blood stream. Milk is
actually more full of sugar than many people realize (in the form
of lactose), so this is a helpful feature—almost as if the
nutrients in milk naturally complement one another! And though the
fat in milk is mostly the saturated kind, it’s not necessarily the
same type of fat you’re getting from French fries and bacon. There
are different types
of saturated fats, which function different
metabolically. 

But enough biochemistry and abstraction—doesn’t it just make
sense that giving kids milk with less fat and less calories
would help them avoid unhealthy weight gain? Well, good thing we
have research looking at exactly this question in actual kids. A
longitudinal Harvard study, published in 2005, found
drinking skim or 1% milk was associated with weight gain in 9-
to 14-year-olds, while drinking whole or 2% milk was not. A 2013
study
found the same associations for pre-schoolers. 

So in addition to infringing on personal liberty, the
Connecticut bill—”An Act
Concerning Nutrition Standards for Child Care Settings“—is
based more on some legislator’s harebrained idea of how nutrition
and diet work than any actual nutrition or dietary
science.