Grrr!!! I heard the most frustrating thing in the news today. It said that schools were going to bring back soda and candy bars to the vending machines because kids weren't buying the milk, juice, and granola bars they put there in order to help fight childhood obesity. WHAT?!? Did someone really think they were helping kids make healthier lifestyle choices by choosing those foods over candy? Milk is cow's juice and not natural for the human body. It is not the worst thing you could put in your body, but it does not readily supply anything your body needs and instead plays a mean trick on your digestive system. Your body stopped producing the enzymes to process milk when you stopped needing to nurse from your mother. It can indeed continue to produce them, but it does not do so regularly and you can start up a nasty digestive problem if you are not prepared. Some people say that milk is a protein source, but it is a fairly negligible amount of protein compared to other things. You are being greatly deceived if you have consumed a bowl of cereal and thought you got enough protein for a meal. In reality, your protein : carbohydrates ratio is way out of whack in that meal and your muscles and brain will be running off the flour and sugar from the cereal instead of the protein they want. There is also a strong campaign that dairy provides calcium, and no one gets enough calcium. Broccoli and spinach provide more calcium than milk, and they don't give you the shits. Not to mention that most milk has its calcium and vitamin D added to it, it's not there naturally. Fruit juice equals sugar sans fiber. Eating a whole piece of fruit is good because you get all that crunchy fiber that helps you digest food at a pace your body can work with. Simply squeezing out the juice maximizes your calorie and sugar intake, and now at a rapid pace! Yes, it's good for vitamin C among other things, but that vitamin C is still present in the whole fruit that actually makes you feel full. All of this is assuming the juice being provided is 100% juice, not a juice cocktail, which are usually cheaper and more common.

Here is the nutritional information for a bottle of apple-banana juice, something I would definitely expect kids to drink. Notice that the serving size is 4 fl oz. This is what a wine pour at a restaurant is supposed to be, and I know we all complain about how tiny those are! In this tiny serving there are several calories, a decent amount of carbs and sugar, negligible amounts of anything else, although I will give credit for plenty of vitamin C. However, aside from the vitamin C, what is this product offering you? Nada.

The last choice being offered, granola bars, is simply an energy spike. It gained its reputation for being healthy because people engaged in long bouts of physical exercise would eat them. Protein takes awhile to be incorporated into the body, so if you have completely run out of energy, you need to eat a combo of protein for later and quick carbohydrates for now. If you are sitting in class and only moving your hand to write things down or pass notes to your neighbor, you don't need the quick carbohydrates, you need an energy source that is slower and more stable so you can pay attention without talking too much in class.

Dear schools, please think about what you are actually doing, not because the "Got Milk?" marketing campaign told you so.