On his TV show, Food Revolution, chef Jamie Oliver filled a school bus with sand to illustrate the amount of added sugar that Los Angeles students consume every year in flavored milk. The stunt apparently paid off this week when the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) board voted to ban chocolate and strawberry milk from school cafeterias, making LAUSD the largest school district in the country to ban flavored milk.
Flavored milk contains 20 to 27 grams of sugar per serving, which Oliver points out is the equivalent of a candy bar. Other unwanted ingredients in milk include saturated fat, cholesterol, antibiotics, hormones, and even pus. Studies suggest that milk consumption may contribute to allergies, constipation, recurrent ear infections, iron-deficiency anemia, acne, juvenile diabetes, and even cancer.
As part of their effort to improve school lunches, officials are also proposing a $50 million contract with Five Star Gourmet Foods to provide meatless meals to students that would include vegetable pad Thai with peanut sauce and California sushi rolls. Take that, mystery meat!
Written by Alisa Mullins
