MilkPEP, funded by the nation’s milk processors, is challenging American families to make milk their beverage of choice – and awarding 25 of those families with great prizes! Families can enter by taking a photo of their family choosing milk or donning the famous Milk Mustache and upload it to the website before August 31, 2007.
As families gather back around the dinner table, what was once a staple of the meal — milk — might be hard to find. Over the past decade, milk at dinner has steadily declined and today nearly 60 percent of children’s dinners do not include milk, according to new findings from The NPD Group. Conversely, nearly one-third of all kids’ meals are served with a soft drink or fruit drink — beverages that are often loaded with sugar and missing important nutrients.
The percentage of overweight American children and teens has tripled in the last two decades and a recent report called What America Drinks suggests that beverage choice may impact weight and the overall quality of the diet. Because of these findings, health experts like registered dietitian Jodie Shield are joining the nationwide Think About Your Drink campaign to urge parents to think about what’s filling their children’s glasses and make milk the “official drink of the family.”
“As parents, it’s important for us to realize that beverage choice may play a part in the fight against raising overweight, yet undernourished kids,” said Shield. “And, family dinner is a great place to start. By swapping your child’s soft drink for milk, you boost vital nutrients many kids are missing.”
Choosing milk at your next family dinner can have a real nutrition impact. Choosing lowfat or fat free milk may help keep your family at a healthy weight. Research shows drinking the recommended three servings of lowfat or fat free milk everyday is an important part of a healthy diet for parents and their kids, and may also contribute toward maintaining a healthy weight.
With Americans currently consuming two to three times the amount of sweetened beverages as they do milk, dinner is an important meal for parents to help control what their kids are drinking. Research shows that the more often a family eats together, the more likely their kids will choose calcium-rich drinks such as milk and shy away from nutrient-void sodas.
In fact, studies on mothers and daughters show that moms’ own food choices may be more influential than any other attempt to control their daughters’ food intake. A mother’s decision to drink milk more frequently and to eat more fruits, vegetables and whole grains is likely to influence her daughter’s choices.