OVERWEIGHT IN AMERICA - GOT MILK? Throughout history, obesity and wealth have been directly proportional. Aristocracy has always benefited from the creme de la creme of man's food supply, and overeating of rich foods has been reserved for the rulers of both primitive and civilized societies. Today, starvation and malnutrition are directly proportional to poverty in most world nations. America is the exception. In the United States, being poor often means being overweight. Poor children in America's inner cities are often roly-poly fat children. Drive by any schoolyard in America's inner cities and overweight kids are the norm, not the exception. Children, lacking in proper nutrition at home, are now the beneficiaries of school breakfast and lunch programs. What food group is the most subsidized in America? Milk and dairy products. Milk is mandatory for school lunch programs. Milk contains plenty of calories, growth hormones, fat, and cholesterol. The most powerful growth hormone in the human body is identical to the most powerful growth hormone in a cow's body. That hormone instructs every cell in the human body to grow. Children are becoming overweight at an early age. By eating growth hormones in combination with animal fat, the body has a way of listening to the signals of those chemical messengers: GROW! Many children of color live below the poverty level. In its wisdom, the United States Department of Agriculture provides free food and nutritional programs for these kids. In its lack of wisdom, USDA has chosen milk and dairy products to be the major components of these kids' diets. These children now receive free breakfasts of cereal with milk, free lunches of chocolate milk with macaroni and cheese or pizza. A free snack before they go home is more chocolate milk. Ten pounds of milk are required to make one pound of cheese. In 1970, the average American ate ten pounds of cheese. Today, the average American eats thirty pounds of cheese. Concentrated growth hormones in the presence of fat and cholesterol do just what they were designed to accomplish. Milk and dairy products represent 40% of the average American's diet, 666 pounds per year per person. ************************************************************ FAT KIDS GET FATTER WITH WASHED BRAINS Milk producers have their work cut out for them. How do you get kids who instinctively hate the taste of milk to drink more of it? By adding flavor, that's how! The new dairy strategy will be to promote the sale of flavored milks. In the year 2000, flavored milk sales increased by a factor of 18 percent, and they'll soon rise even higher. The dairy industry has just completed a study, and learned that an additional 55% children in the 6-11 age group would drink more milk if it were chocolate flavored. That's great news for Hershey's! If you think America has an obesity epidemic now, observe what will happen to our kids in years to come. Let's imagine that kids change just one thing in their diets, replacing regular milk consumption with chocolate milk. The dairy industry wants kids to drink 3-5 8-ounce glasses of milk each day. Let's analyze an average quart of milk and compare it to an average quart of chocolate milk, shall we? One quart of whole MILK = 600 calories and 32.6 grams of fat. One quart of chocolate MILK = 834 calories and 33.9 grams of fat. If the average kid substitutes chocolate milk for regular milk, he or she will consume 234 calories more each day and 1.3 grams more of fat. Since there are 365 days in one year, that child will eat 475 more grams of fat which adds up to one pound more of pure fat! Multiply that times twelve years (first grade through high school). Calories are even more revealing: 234x365=85,410 more calories per year. Since 3500 calories are converted to one pound of fat in the human body, that child should gain 24 pounds. If the child drinks reduced fat chocolate milk, he or she will drink a quart containing just 715 calories. That adds up to a weight gain of 12 pounds. If that same child drinks low fat chocolate milk, he or she will drink a quart containing 630 calories. In this case, he or she will gain just three pounds. Imagine kids asking for diet chocolate milk. More than 28,000 stores have signed up for the 2001 chocolate milk promotion which shall begin soon. Schools are also participating in the program with an NBA sponsored "Slam Dunk Drink" school food service promotion which should reach more than 8.5 million students in 15,000 schools nationwide. The effort features posters, banners, and student giveaways. HERE IS THE DAIRY INDUSTRY STRATEGY Television commercials: In March, chocolate milk ads will run on Nickelodeon and the Cartoon Network. Special events: The fourth annual "milk mustache" mobile promotion will begin in March. The "Got Chocolate Milk?" tour will visit more than 100 cities, offering computer kiosks that contain milk nutrient and bone health information; bone density tests and osteoporosis screenings; and a "milk sensation polling station" where consumers can sample milk smoothies like chocolate-peanut butter cup and strawberry 'n' cream cooler. Perhaps the milk mobiles should screen for blood cholesterol. Perhaps the milk mobiles should include scales to weigh obese kids. Perhaps the milk mobiles should dispense boxes of Kleenex. ************************************************************ Are Your Friends Fat Cows? In 1985, the average American woman wore a size 8. Today she wears a size 14. I had turned on the television in my Los Angeles hotel room at 3:00 AM. My body was still on New York time. I was stunned to hear the KABC obesity story at 3:04 AM. Yesterday, I flew from New York to California. Today, I made the return trip, from left coast to right coast. Last night, I was the guest of honor on Kevin Nealon's "Conspiracy Zone," a nationally syndicated cable TV show. Kevin once reported the news on Saturday Night Live, and for yesterday's show, he was at his stand-up best. I debated a dairy farmer/cattleman, and this program is not to be missed. (I'll announce the time and date.) Back to the obesity story. How could American women go from size 8 to size 14 in just 17 years? What other change has occurred in less than two decades? During the 1980s, the average American woman was eating 10 pounds of cheese per year. Today, she consumes an average 31 pounds per year. It takes 10 pounds of milk to produce one pound of cheese, so 310 pounds of saturated, fat-rich, high calorie milk with growth hormones fuel America's obesity epidemic. Like the baby calf drinking her mother's milk, the average American female body, more and more, is resembling that of a bovine. Charles Attwood, MD, wrote: "Dietary fat during childhood may be more life-threatening than was originally suspected... Overweight children are usually the victims of the dietary habits of the adult members of the family...Reducing dietary fat to levels necessary to the control of cholesterol cannot be achieved if a child drinks whole milk or eats cheese." In July of 2000, the Archive of Disabled Children (Volume 83) wrote: "From 1965 to 1996, a considerable shift in the adolescent diet occurred...increases occurred in the consumption of higher fat potatoes and mixed dishes (pizza, macaroni cheese)... These trends, far greater than for US adults, may compromise health of the future US population." It is easy to gain weight by eating pizza, ice cream, yogurt, and milk. It is also easy to slim down from size 14 to size 8 again. The dietary answer: NOTMILK! __________________________________________________ Robert Cohen author of: MILK A-Z Executive Director (notmilkman@notmilk.com) Dairy Education Board http://www.notmilk.com This file: http://www.notmilk.com/forum/279.txt Do you know of a friend or family member with one or more of these milk-related problems? Do them a huge favor and forward the URL or this entire file to them. Do you know of someone who should read these newsletters? If so, have them send a empty Email to: notmilk-subscribe@yahoogroups.com and they will receive it (automatically)!