To the Editor:
I would like to respond to the article that appeared in the FARMSHINE on June 24, 2016 regarding the statements made by the Potter-McKean dairy promotion team. With all due respect to the fine work done by the young Dairy Princesses, there are evidently some adults that are trying to indicate that fat-free milk is the most popular drink in our schools. However, they forget to tell the public that whole, white milk and whole chocolate milk is not even allowed to be given to our school children.
This is a shame. It’s very obvious when school kids (and yes, even adults) are given a choice between no-fat milk (which is virtually skim milk) and whole milk, and whole milk wins by a large margin. Even worse, there are all kinds of evidence that clearly illustrates our students need whole milk to help fully develop their brains.
I personally did a survey in the North Pocono School district at the request of one of the teachers. All of the students voted in favor of whole chocolate milk from Mannings dairy, located close to Dalton, Pa. The butterfat in this milk was approximately 3.9% fat. (Even the red cap milk sold in stores as whole milk is 3.25% fat.)
In the same issue of FARMSHINE, author Sherry Bunting reported that in Canada consumer mindset is now bringing people back to the realization that milk-fat is good; it’s okay to eat butter and drink whole milk. In my opinion, the Canadian people are on-track with the realization of the importance of whole milk and butter that many consumers in the USA now realize.
In addition we have done a substantial amount of work with Nina Teicholz of NYC. Nina is the author of the best-selling book, “The Big Fat Surprise; Why Butter, Meat and Cheese belong in a healthy diet.”
In our opinion, obesity is not caused by milk fat, but is most likely caused in most part by students not having proper exercise. Instead of real exercise, they spend too much time on computers and video games, and smartphones.
Please remember, it is dairy farmers’ money that funds some of these nonsensical programs such as promoting no-fat milk.
Let’s use the dairy farmers’ money by advertising and promoting WHOLE MILK.
Arden Tewksbury, Progressive Agriculture Organization (progressiveagricultureorg@
Whole milk is what we should be consuming. Low – and non-fat milk have most of the fat removed so our bodies can’t use the fat-soluble nutrients they contain.
It’s also advisable to switch from margarine to butter.