M Is For Milk

I'm taking you on a journey from A to Z through the land of dairy! 

There's no need to pack your bags, just come along! 
 M Is For Milk

I like milk; always have and always will. Thanks to mom and dad, milk was always the beverage served at meals. I remember as a kid, my mom would buy chocolate or strawberry flavored powder that we could mix into our white milk. Now days kids have it easy (insert winking smiley face here). Flavored milk can be easily purchased at the grocery store. Data shows that school kids choose flavored milk 70% of the time. 

But what about the sugar? Flavored milk contributes just 3% of added sugar to kids' diets. Sodas and fruit drinks account for close to half of the added sugar and deliver much less nutrition in the process. Children who drink flavored milk meet more of their nutrient needs and consume less added sugar than non-milk drinkers. 

My thoughts...the small amount of added sugars in flavored milk is an acceptable trade-off for the nutrients milk provides. Whether your milk is white or flavored, drink up. I guess my mom and dad did know what they were doing (insert winking smiley face here)!

For thoughts by other moms, click here.

 

  Learn more about dairy at Dairy Makes Sense
 

I am making a commitment to share as much as I can with you each day this month, about the life of our dairy farm family including what we do, how we share our passion for dairy, and dairy foods we enjoy.

 See you here tomorrow...N Is For Nine.

 

 

This Is What I Believe...

Recently I have seen misinformation that milk processors are petitioning to add aspartame to milk, and not including this information in the ingredient labeling. I am not going to give you a list of the "confused misconceptions" I have been reading, but rather I would like to share with you, what I have researched and believe to be true.

To better understand this misinformation, we need to back-up a bit. The National Milk Producers Association (NMPF) and International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) filed a petition on March 16, 2009 with the FDA (Food and Drug Administration). The purpose of the petition is to allow milk processors the opportunity to use safe and suitable sweeteners to reduce the overall caloric content in milk, while still allowing it to be labeled “milk.” This request was made to create flavored milk with reduced calories. The FDA approved the use of acceptable sugar alternatives, including aspartame, at that time.   All food products that include non-nutritive sweeteners as an ingredient must be clearly labeled and include the sweetener on the package’s ingredient statement as required by the FDA’s labeling regulations.

To read the flavored milk petition, click here.

What does all this mean? The "confused misconceptions" I referred to earlier in this post is that some consumers believe that dairy processors want to deceive consumers by not listing artificial sweeteners on the ingredient label. This is not true. Dairy Processors follow the FDA labeling regulation. Dairy processors concern about labeling is that they want artificially sweetened flavored milk to be called Milk; not "low calorie milk," or "low sugar milk," or "beverage," or "drink", for example, but would prefer it say "Milk". Dairy processors are not disputing that artificial sweeteners need to be listed in the ingredients.

Additional thoughts I want to share-

• White milk DOES NOT contain sweeteners. I invite you to check the label on the milk jug in your refrigerator right now.
• When natural or artificial sweeteners are added to flavored milk, they MUST be included on the package ingredient label, which the dairy industry has always done. I have family members with food allergies (not related to dairy foods) but I understand the importance of having all ingredients listed on product labeling. As a consumer, we have the right to know!
• All milk, white or flavored, provides you with 9 essential nutrients, including calcium which nourishes your body and your bones. So choose whatever suits your taste buds!
• As a dairy farmer and a milk consumer, we at Bremer Farms are committed to producing dairy foods that we are proud to serve to our family and yours!