President To Sign Bill Allowing Return Of Whole Milk In Schools

Authored by Aaron Gifford via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

President Donald Trump will sign the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act on Wednesday, overhauling previous U.S. Department of Agriculture guidelines that required milk served in school cafeterias to be fat-free or low-fat.

Now, schools have the freedom to serve whole milk, flavored or unflavored, as well as organic milk.

The Senate passed the bill unanimously in November; it easily cleared the House a month later. It was sent to Trump on Jan. 6.

A 2 p.m. signing ceremony is planned in which the president will reverse an Obama-era policy that banned whole milk in public schools, White House officials confirmed to NTD, sister media outlet of The Epoch Times.

“This is common sense and great news for America’s children, dairy farmers, and parents who deserve choice, not big government mandates. President Trump is delivering on his commitment to Make America Healthy Again,” said Taylor Rogers, a White House spokeswoman.

The legislation also stipulates that schools must provide milk substitutes to students with dietary restrictions upon presentation of a letter from a parent or licensed physician.

Additionally, liquid milk no longer counts toward the 10 percent maximum allowance of saturated fat calories.

Rep. John Mannion (D-N.Y.), who sponsored the House bill, previously said this legislation goes a long way in helping U.S. dairy farmers while also providing students the diets they need to “thrive in the classroom.”

“As a teacher for almost 30 years, I saw firsthand how proper nutrition supports student success,” said Mannion, whose district contains many dairy farms.

A 2012 federal law prohibited school cafeterias from serving whole milk, which led to a significant decline in student milk consumption in the past decade, according to Mannion’s Dec. 15 news release.

In the two years between 2014 and 2016 alone, schools served 213 million fewer half pints of milk despite rising public school enrollment.

Mannion also said children over the age of 4 are not getting the recommended daily dairy as outlined by federal dietary guidelines aimed at promoting stronger bone health, lower blood pressure, and reduced risks of Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

By contrast, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a nonprofit agency represented by about 17,000 physicians, has criticized this legislation, saying that more saturated fats are unhealthy options for children.

Instead, the committee said, Congress should push soy milk as a healthier source of protein, and alternative healthy calcium sources such as nuts, kale, broccoli, and fortified orange juice.

In a related action last week, the federal departments of agriculture and health and human services unveiled a new “upside-down” food pyramid that reduces the recommended amount of grains and healthy fats and oils while increasing the amount of meats and vegetables.

Those guidelines, which will be updated every five years, also provide a stronger stance against sugar and alcohol consumption while promoting unprocessed or lesser-processed foods with saturated fats like yogurt, cheese, and whole milk.

Previous guidelines contained more sweeping generalizations against all types of saturated fats, federal officials said.

“These guidelines replace corporate-driven assumptions with common-sense goals and gold-standard scientific integrity,” Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said on Jan. 7.