The Cold Liquid Facts

North American milk producers Saputo Foods and Lucerne Foods list on their websites that 20 grams of sugar are added to every 250ml of their chocolate milk, the equivalent of five teaspoons.  That amounts to 40 more calories than white milk.  Popular breakfast alternatives include orange juice and apple juice, but those also pack a sugary punch:  eight and ten teaspoons of sugar per 250ml respectively, without the vast nutritional benefits of milk.

White milk and chocolate milk, it appears, are near equals, with chocolate being the sweeter of the two.  But they both contain the same main ingredient:  milk.

Looking Ahead

“For those children that love chocolate, it's something that you don't have to harp on them to drink as well,” Tucker said.  “The same can't always be said for protein shakes and other nutritional drinks.”

The chocolate in chocolate milk might even be beneficial.  The New York Times published a study that tracked adults drinking chocolate-flavoured skim milk and a control group drinking only the milk.  Each group had two glasses a day.  The chocolate drinkers came out with much higher HDL (the good cholesterol) and there were benefits with reduced inflammation in many areas, although not all.

Columnist Blake Eskin has published a series of opinions The New Yorker magazine concluding that if chocolate milk is banned or left unsubsidized by schools they might as well ban white milk.

Is It That Bad?

The segregation of milk playing out in kitchens and cafeterias across North America has experts fearing the worst.  If the United States bans chocolate milk from schools and if Canadian provinces like P.E.I. fail to subsidize the wholesome liquid, there are worries kids will turn to pop or, worse yet, the lighter, more widely accepted colours of juice.  It will be years before we see the full results of these debates.  The aftermath is yet to come, but the good news is chocolate milk has, at the very least, entered into the debate.

Considered by many athletes to be the ultimate sports drink with its near perfect concoction of essential vitamins and minerals, optimism runs high that chocolate milk will soon break through and escape its enslaved reputation, worlds over.

The fact is, kids don’t get enough calcium and vitamin D in their diets as it is.  Any kind of milk is a great supplement to that.  The extra sugar is a minor price to pay.  It’s a good way for children and athletes to get valuable calcium, vitamin D and to replace nutrients lost during physical activity.