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Educate your patients on the importance of 3-A-Day of Dairy: Here's
a great
tool (PDF: 618k) to show families how to get their 3-A-Day of Dairy
every day for stronger bones.
Developed in conjunction with The American Academy of Family
Physicians, The American Academy of Pediatrics, The American Dietetic
Association, and The National Medical Association.
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Dairy Council Digest Archives
Taking Action to Improve Children's Nutrition & Fitness: The Role of Schools
School Milk Pilot Test: Dairy as Part of the Solution to Improving Children's Nutrition
Milk is a nutrient dense food providing nine essential nutrients, including calcium, protein, phosphorus, potassium, riboflavin, vitamin A, vitamin B12, niacin, and vitamin D (if fortified) (14). Unfortunately, consumption of fluid milk by school-aged children has decreased in recent decades and children's intake of Milk Group foods falls short of recommended servings (12,13,35-38). Low milk intake contributes to children's low calcium intakes (6,7,11,39) and may place them at risk for a wide range of health conditions including bone fractures in childhood and osteoporosis, hypertension, and possibly obesity later in life (15-19).
Increased availability of competitive beverages such as soft drinks, juices, and juice drinks may contribute to children's low milk intake (36). Other factors such as taste, flavors, temperature, packaging, and merchandising (presentation) of milk influence children's decisions to drink milk (22,40-42). Although participation in school meal programs provides students with nutritional and academic benefits (43-45), many students do not participate in these programs and, even if they do, they may not drink milk, thereby decreasing the nutritional benefit of the meal (46,47).
To learn how a combination of upgrades in milk packaging (e.g., plastic resealable containers in various sizes), flavor variety (white, chocolate, and a third flavor, usually strawberry), refrigeration, and merchandising (e.g., availability of milk a la carte and in vending machines) impact students' selection and consumption of milk and their participation in the school lunch program, a School Milk Pilot Test (SMPT) was recently conducted (33). Sponsored by National Dairy Council and the American School Food Service Association, this test involved over 100,000 students enrolled in146 elementary and secondary schools (47 control, 99 test) from 18 school districts in different parts of the U.S. In addition to data on milk sales (i.e., indicator of milk selection), school meal participation, and milk plate waste (i.e., indicator of milk consumption), more than 5,000 questionnaires regarding attitudes and behaviors were completed.
Findings from the School Milk Pilot Test show that more students select and drink more milk and increase their participation in the school lunch program when cold milk in a variety of flavors in convenient, easy-to-use packages is readily available.
Findings of the SMPT reveal that milk enhancements increased students' selection and consumption of milk and their participation in the school lunch program. Milk sales increased 15% in elementary test schools and 22% in secondary test schools, or 18% for all participating test schools. Most of the increase in milk sales (86%) came from the school meal line, although it also increased from a la carte and vending.
Not only did students take more milk, but they drank more of the milk they took, as indicated by milk plate waste findings. The average decrease in plate waste was 18% in elementary schools and 26% in secondary schools. Elementary and secondary school students increased their milk consumption by 35% and 39%, respectively. Excessive plate waste in the school lunch program, especially from nutrient dense foods such as milk, is of concern because it indicates that children are not fully benefiting from the nutrients offered by school meals (48).
Enhancements in milk available in schools also led to increased average daily participation in the school lunch program over the course of the study. Compared to the control schools, average daily participation was 4.8% higher in secondary test schools and1.5% higher in elementary test schools. Although the increase in average daily participation in elementary schools was not significant, it is noteworthy given that participation rates are already reported to be as high as 88%.
Research shows that increased milk intake and participation in school meal programs improves the nutritional quality of children's diets (36,38,39,43,49-51). For example, a nationwide study of children ages 5 to17 found that only those children who drank milk with their noon meal met or exceeded recommended calcium intakes for that meal or for the entire day (49). According to USDA's recent School Nutrition Dietary Assessment Study II, milk accounted for 53.9% of the calcium, 30.3% of the vitamin A, 24.0% of the protein, and 20.7% of the carbohydrate served in National School Lunch Program lunches (43). Milk has been found to contribute the most calcium and protein per100kcal and per penny among five meal components in school lunch menus, according to a recent study (52). Participation in school meal programs increases consumption of milk and other nutritious foods (51). By increasing the average participation in school meal programs and including an enhanced milk product, it is expected that more children will consume more nutritious foods. Also, children who are better nourished perform better in school (44,45,47).
When students participating in the SMPT were surveyed about their attitudes and behaviors, they said that they clearly preferred plastic resealable bottles instead of traditional milk cartons, and secondary school students in particular liked larger servings of milk (i.e.,10-ounce servings) (33). At the end of the survey, more students (10%) reported drinking flavored milk most often at school lunch compared to the pre-survey. Other studies have shown that children prefer flavored milk (22) and that when given an option of flavored milk such as chocolate milk, consumption of milk and calcium increases (53). The SMPT found that the presence of a third flavor of milk, particularly strawberry, was important in increasing children's in-school milk consumption.
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