Milk vs. Chocolate Milk
A while back we had a discussion on the forum about products being advertised as healthy when they’re not. One mom was annoyed that Nestle promoted that adding it’s chocolate syrup to milk wasn’t bad and would ensure picky kids got their calcium. I tend to agree with Nestle.
But, what I do think is gross is pre-made chocolate milk. Have you ever read the ingredient list of several brands? It is NOT “milk”, but rather “milk ingredients.” In case you’re wondering what exactly milk ingredients are check this out.
So, while I see no harm in a little sugar added to real milk – stick with the real milk and skip the “milk ingredients.”
But, what I do think is gross is pre-made chocolate milk. Have you ever read the ingredient list of several brands? It is NOT “milk”, but rather “milk ingredients.” In case you’re wondering what exactly milk ingredients are check this out.
So, while I see no harm in a little sugar added to real milk – stick with the real milk and skip the “milk ingredients.”
posted by Alice at 4:42 PM
NEW! 
12 Comments:
I'm not sure what pre-made chocolate milk you are looking at, but my husband works for a dairy, and their chocolate milk is milk - with the cocoa powder, sugar, mix added in.
It is good to point out that it is always important to read the ingredients on anything - so you know what you are getting.
Thanks Anna. What dairy does he work for?
I should have been careful with such a blanket statement. The milk ingredients were in the Dairlyand chocolate milk available at McDonald's (yes, I said McDonalds! Blush). I also checked in our local grocery store, and am not sure of the brand, and found the same. I'm in Canada, so don't know if there is a difference between American and Canadian Dairyland.
I'm going to have to go get a box of that nesquick stuff and look at the ingredients. I remember it having many not so good for you ingredients.
Why not melt a little natural chocolate and add that to it instead? That's even better than Nesquick I imagine.
Ultimately though I'd rather my kids don't get used to chocolate milk and if they never have milk again I don't think it will do them any harm either. YOu can get calcium from lots of other sources.
MCDonald's chocolate milk, yuk, LOL. I've only seen white milk at McDonalds though so didn't realize they made chocolate one too.
why not just have your child drink plain old milk? i dont mind chocolate milk on occasion as a treat, but what got under my skin was using it everyday in order for kids to get their calcium.
my child drinks and eats what i make for him. period. i dont need to bribe him to drink milk by putting chocolate in it.
Well Nell, because some kids don't like milk. I didn't like plain milk as a child and just didn't drink it when it was put in front of me...and my mom was a pretty tough lady and had strict rules about nearly everything.
Both my boys loved milk. Nathan still drinks it all the time (he rarely asks for anything else), but I messed up with Malcolm. When he was about 20 months, he had a violently upset stomach. He asked for milk and I stupidly said, "Have water instead. Milk might upset your stomach."
Then soon after (he was about 20 months), whenever I offered him milk, he'd say, "No, it might upset my stomach." He's been drinking water as a preference ever since.
We used to call him Milky Malcy because he liked it so much....but since then he won't drink it on his own. He'll have it in cereal, but rarely a glass on his own.
It's awesome that your kids will eat what you serve, but I'm okay if they don't like everything. Milk is great, but not an absolute necessity. Malcolm loves yogurt, cheese and broccoli...and gets calcium in other ways...and yeah, some chocolate milk now and then. I don't think it's anything to sweat about.
Mila - what are we, superheroes? Melting chocolate into cold milk? That sounds like a lot of work and a lot of dishes in the process. ;-)
LOL Alice! You don't melt it into COLD milk. You heat it up slightly and put the chocolate into it... but actually, I buy a powdered chocolate from Green and Black (I don't know if they have this brand there) that's just pure chocolate it works just like the Nesquick but It's natural.
I do add a little brown sugar otherwise it's very bitter, but I know exactly what's in it then. But they rarely have it anyways... more in the winter than summer. My kids aren't big milk drinkers either way.
For the record, I don't have issues with occassional treats for children... chocolate milk can be comforting and nice. I love it too :-)
I don't like how Nesquick uses the whole "calcium" thing to get people to buy the product. A lot of companies do this and label certain things as okay or healthy... in this case it's okay b/c they'll get their calcium and grow healthy bones.
You don't take it to the extreme Alice but there are a lot of parents that do and use this excuse, it's okay to have 3 or 4 glasses of milk everyday with this stuff b/c he's getting his calcium.
That's NOT good regardless of what Nesquick tries to put across in their clever marketing.
It's the same with those little yogurts that are nothing more than sugar. I don't have a problem with the kids eating them but I know exactly what they are eating. I don't like that the companies (and some parents) think oh it's healthy it's "yogurt" when in actuality it's nothing more but sugar and flavorings... may as well have a piece of chocolate cake and enjoy it!
Chocolate milk syrup as well as some pre-made chocolate milks and some yogurts, as Mila mentioned, are not that good for you specifically because of the corn syrup. My youngest son is allergic to corn and we were given a 3 page list of what constitutes corn & corn syrup as ingredients. It's in almost everything and it's bad for you.
I have no problem with giving my older son chocolate milk when he asks because he rarely drinks any milk. He'd rather have water. Our youngest has organic rice milk.
Come on Mila, don't villify yogurt. ;-) It's got so many health benefits and you can find naturally sweetened kinds.
If your son is allergic to corn, that must be tough, petite mommy. Corn syrup IS in a lot of stuff and I agree it's not good for us.
But let's be serious, likely most of us, grew up on things that we are now horrified about...but most of us are still in one piece and doing fine.
If corn syrup is the first ingredient (and it may well be in chocolate syrup - can't check...there's none in the house right now...but that's being put into something where MILK will be the main ingredient when consumed), there's obviously little to no health benefit. But if it's milk or yogurt with something sweet inside, I'm pretty I can live with it. In fact, I've been living with it all my life and have turned out okay. :-)
We have yogurt the natural kind with real fruit. There are some that are sweetened with sweetners which are not good for you.
I think for us we grew up eating sweet stuff sure but it was more natural, things were not as processsed as they are now.
During my teens I had a pretty terrible diet though.
I think we haven't seen the full effects of these foods yet. They are not the same foods our parents ate or we ate as very young children (before the junk food craze).
We may be fine now but I bet our generation (and more so our kids generation) will have more health issues at a younger age than our parents and grandparents...
Of course we're going to have to wait a while before we know for sure ;-)
natural foods and that includes sugar I don't have an issue with. I know some people are totally against sugar, i'm not.
I do have an issue with processed foods and foods that are labeled as healthy when they clearly aren't... or I guess it depends on the person's personal definition of what is healthy and that definitely varies.
At the end of the day we each do what we feel is right for our kids.
"At the end of the day we each do what we feel is right for our kids."
You betcha!
Yup, I had to train hubby on this the other day... Our grocery store actually has chocoriffic DRINK (that comes in a gallon right in the milk section) and then actual pure chocolate milk. I do often buy it premade and then "water" it down with regular milk. Unfortunatley, none of my children care for milk much at all and plain white milk is out of the question. My oldest wouldn't even take breastmilk well - just never has liked milk of any form... We had one pediatrician that highly recommended that our kids do not drink any milk at all - flavored or not - saying that all the kids she sees who drink milk have more medical problems then those who don't. I don't go quite that extreme... but we don't do milk too often and if we do it's chocolate...
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