My daughter and I were at Chipotle last night, giving my husband some requisite quiet time to finish his inventory for work. I ordered her meal, and was presented with a couple of options for her drink: water, juice, white milk and chocolate milk.
Now I love Chipotle, and I'm so glad that they only serve organic milk, but why oh why does it have to be low-fat? This isn't necessarily Chipotle's fault, but Organic Valley who makes the shelf-stable milk boxes. My point is that if we're so afraid of our kids getting fat, why are we making pre-made chocolate milk? It's the added sugars that are tipping the scales, as it were, and not the milkfat. The milkfat is crucial for the proper absorbtion of the vitamins and minerals, and the brain, being made of mostly saturated fats, needs it to come from our dets, especially in these crucial developing years.
But my guess is that even Organic Valley, who brags about its cows eating fine grasses, listens to the low-fat hype by the USDA. Sigh.
I get frustrated with the general tendency for people to offer sweetened drinks to kids. My daughter loves juice, and I hate always feeling like the bad guy by turning it down. But all the sugars often really upset her stomach.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on the milk. I'd much rather give my daughter whole fat plain milk than low fat chocolate milk.
It might also have to do with public awareness and profit. People hear "organic" and think it's everything they need to stay healthy; Chipotle can offer it for not much more than they would pay for non-organic milk, and focus on other issues.
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