"5 Reasons Why Flavored Milk Matters" Propaganda....

Today at the Minnesota State Fair, we made an annual stop at the "All You Can Drink Milk" booth.  This is a popular booth at the fair with roughly 15 lines of people minimally 10-15 people deep at all times.  Most people are toting buckets of Sweet Martha's Chocolate Chip Cookies.  For $1, you can have all the milk, white or chocolate that you can handle.  With Jacob having been part calf most of his life and being a non soda drinker, this is his Mecca. 

People Lined Up For AYCD Milk!

This year was the first time that I found propaganda in their space.  Without question, the pressures being put on schools by people like Jamie Oliver as I talked about in this post are causing more than just regional impact on how people are thinking differently.  I picked up a flyer titled "5 Reasons Flavored Milk Matters".  Let's review them from a counterpoint perspective and see if they really have 5 valid points.

1. Nine Essential Nutients - It says right on the flyer that flavored milk has the same nine essential nutrients as white milk.   So if it is the same, what is the gain here?  No point.
2. Kids Love The Taste - Seriously?  Kids love chocolate?  I would never have guessed.  Next they will start publishing studies that if given a choice, kids will choose cookies over fruits and veggies!  No point.
3. Helps Kids Get 3 Servings A Day - Like #1, no different than white milk.  No point.
4. Better Diet Quality -  Kids that drink flavored milk meet more of their nutrient needs; do not consume more added sugar, fat or calories; and are not heavier than non-milk drinkers.  This makes me want to scream!  Flavored milk contains 10g added sugar than white milk for a 1/2 pint.  That already disqualifies this.  Also, to compare the weight of flavored milk drinkers to non-milk drinkers in terms of weight, etc is a farse!  Milk drinkers or not, kids are eating junk everywhere so you are comparing 2 like groups!  ABSOLUTELY NO POINT!
5. Top Choice In Schools - Low Fat chocolate milk is the most popular choice in schools, and kids drink less milk, and get fewer nutrients, if it's taken away.  This is just a restated version of #2.  Of course kids will choose chocolate over white!  Maybe if the schools served up better food overall, those that dislike white milk won't be missing out so much.  There is more than 1 way to get these essential nutients aside from milk without caving in with flavored milk every day.  No point!

This all comes to you courtesy of the Midwest Dairy Association.  A member of our community wellness group made a comment in a meeting that she did not feel flavored milk was the enemy.  Maybe not completely but in the state of things with how our children eat, let's get balance back before we make that call.  This could be the first generation of kids that do not outlive their parents in life expectancy.  This is from a plethora of causes but right now we need big changes across the board.  Yes, that includes removal of flavored milk.

If Jake wanted chocolate today (they were sold out), would I have said no?  Absolutely not.  This was the fair - a treat - a diversion from everyday life.  That is what eating outside of the norms should be based on.  Every day in school is a completely different story and why we as a country are so overweight.  We have lost that sense of what a treat is.  Our 90/10 split is more like 99/1 but in the wrong direction. 

Let's All Hide From The Truth....

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR).....

They cannot find a "smoking gun" to determine why the walleye population on Mille Lacs has gone down in their net counts. Huh? Below is my response to the news story. I included the DNR reps that contributed to the story. Needless to say, I did not receive any responses.

Original Story in the StarTribune. http://www.startribune.com/outdoors/story/1478810.html


Credit where credit is due. Creative writing, A+. Fiction A+.
I wish these stories were not sugarcoated. If you or anyone else wants to see an example of a smoking gun of the past, see Red Lake. Walleyes were nearly extinct from that lake because of netting. When will we learn our lesson?
My parents owned a resort on Mille Lacs for 20 years. We sold before the historic Supreme Court decision where they proved they know nothing about Minnesota Lakes or the impact their decision would have on a perfect resource such as Mille Lacs.
Slip in a comment about unseasonal temperature. Sure, why not just blame global warming, everyone else is. I remember summers where the summer walleye fish kill was so great we had to clean our beach 2 times a day, yet our fishing did not suffer the next year. Net counts were not down. Limits were not reduced. Slots were not created.
Mille Lacs resort owners did everything to bring Mille Lacs Lake after the "Home of the Quarter Pounder" jokes. The 20" limit. The spring night fishing ban. These were ideas by resort groups and leaders to make Mille Lacs a fruitful, never having been stocked lake. All of that progress is gone now.
Tradition? OK. Spear fish like 1837 with a wooden stick in a canoe. I am not being insensitive, I believe the Native Americans were victims. Making their rights come back with 2000 technologies and nets is the cause for this loss of walleye. Now, the resort owners, dependent on fishing have to find a new way to make money. Best of luck.
My mother proved the shenanigans and hidden agenda of the MN DNR 21 years ago. Doug, you can find an article in your Star Tribune archives about her success vs. MN DNR. Her name was Barbara Orr. We wanted to build a harbor. Corps of Engineers gave us a permit as our due diligence was in good order. MN DNR fought us. They claimed "roughfish studies" in letters to us delaying their decision hoping that tying it up in red tape would force us to give up. In the hearing we paid for, we proved that MN DNR only sent those letters to us. There were no studies. There was only lies. After we won and our our harbor was built, we agreed to testing for roughfish annually. The test results only yielded 1 bullhead in 10 years and countless walleye that used the harbor as a spawning area.
Perhaps leaders have changed, perhaps Rick was not at the DNR then. What confidence should I have that this story is truthful? Truth is, I do not. I think everyone knows why Mille Lacs is hurting today. Let's tell the truth.