The California Healthy-by-Default Kids’ Meal Drinks bill (SB 1192), just signed into law on September 20 by Governor Jerry Brown, makes milk and water the standard beverage offerings for kids’ meals at restaurants, fast-food and fast-casual establishments statewide. Ensuring that nutritious beverages like milk are readily accessible is a great way to support the healthy growth and development of children.
With families often lacking the time to prepare and serve meals at home, dining out has become a convenient and increasingly used option that provides an average of 25 percent of a child’s daily calories¹.
This new law reinforces the healthy eating patterns modeled in USDA’s MyPlate and federal meal programs. The belief is that this law will help children and their families see healthy options as the norm, not the exception. Consistent exposure and access to healthy food choices, especially when the principles of behavioral economics (making the healthy choice the easy choice) are employed, will help children form better lifelong eating and drinking habits.
Dairy Council of California believes that all children deserve access to nutritious foods and beverages like milk. We proactively educate our partners, both in the dairy community and in public health, on current research regarding the health benefits of milk and dairy during childhood and beyond. We value our unique role in providing credible nutrition science and its translation to elevate the health of children and families. As demonstrated with SB 1192, collaboration across all sectors is vital to addressing childhood obesity and ensuring children are supported to grow healthfully.
Stay tuned as we will be sharing more of the new developments in nutrition science. For example, research looking specifically at fat in whole milk and reduced-fat dairy foods suggests that dairy fat may have unique properties that differentiate it from fat in other food sources². There is also a growing body of evidence that links the consumption of milk and dairy foods to a wide range of health benefits, from well-studied associations like controlling blood pressure and improving bone health to newer associations like reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease³.
The California Healthy-by-Default Kids’ Meal Drinks bill (SB 1192), just signed into law on September 20 by Governor Jerry Brown, makes milk and water the standard beverage offerings for kids’ meals at restaurants, fast-food and fast-casual establishments statewide. Ensuring that nutritious beverages like milk are readily accessible is a great way to support the healthy growth and development of children.
With families often lacking the time to prepare and serve meals at home, dining out has become a convenient and increasingly used option that provides an average of 25 percent of a child’s daily calories¹.
This new law reinforces the healthy eating patterns modeled in USDA’s MyPlate and federal meal programs. The belief is that this law will help children and their families see healthy options as the norm, not the exception. Consistent exposure and access to healthy food choices, especially when the principles of behavioral economics (making the healthy choice the easy choice) are employed, will help children form better lifelong eating and drinking habits.
Dairy Council of California believes that all children deserve access to nutritious foods and beverages like milk. We proactively educate our partners, both in the dairy community and in public health, on current research regarding the health benefits of milk and dairy during childhood and beyond. We value our unique role in providing credible nutrition science and its translation to elevate the health of children and families. As demonstrated with SB 1192, collaboration across all sectors is vital to addressing childhood obesity and ensuring children are supported to grow healthfully.
Stay tuned as we will be sharing more of the new developments in nutrition science. For example, research looking specifically at fat in whole milk and reduced-fat dairy foods suggests that dairy fat may have unique properties that differentiate it from fat in other food sources². There is also a growing body of evidence that links the consumption of milk and dairy foods to a wide range of health benefits, from well-studied associations like controlling blood pressure and improving bone health to newer associations like reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease³.
The California Healthy-by-Default Kids’ Meal Drinks bill (SB 1192), just signed into law on September 20 by Governor Jerry Brown, makes milk and water the standard beverage offerings for kids’ meals at restaurants, fast-food and fast-casual establishments statewide. Ensuring that nutritious beverages like milk are readily accessible is a great way to support the healthy growth and development of children.
With families often lacking the time to prepare and serve meals at home, dining out has become a convenient and increasingly used option that provides an average of 25 percent of a child’s daily calories¹.
This new law reinforces the healthy eating patterns modeled in USDA’s MyPlate and federal meal programs. The belief is that this law will help children and their families see healthy options as the norm, not the exception. Consistent exposure and access to healthy food choices, especially when the principles of behavioral economics (making the healthy choice the easy choice) are employed, will help children form better lifelong eating and drinking habits.
Dairy Council of California believes that all children deserve access to nutritious foods and beverages like milk. We proactively educate our partners, both in the dairy community and in public health, on current research regarding the health benefits of milk and dairy during childhood and beyond. We value our unique role in providing credible nutrition science and its translation to elevate the health of children and families. As demonstrated with SB 1192, collaboration across all sectors is vital to addressing childhood obesity and ensuring children are supported to grow healthfully.
Stay tuned as we will be sharing more of the new developments in nutrition science. For example, research looking specifically at fat in whole milk and reduced-fat dairy foods suggests that dairy fat may have unique properties that differentiate it from fat in other food sources². There is also a growing body of evidence that links the consumption of milk and dairy foods to a wide range of health benefits, from well-studied associations like controlling blood pressure and improving bone health to newer associations like reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease³.
Sources
¹Lin B, Morrison RM. “Food and Nutrient Intake Data: Taking a Look at the Nutritional Quality of Foods Eaten at Home and Away From Home.” Amber Waves 2012, vol 10(2), pp. 1-2. Accessed at https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2012/june/data-feature-food-and-nutrient-intake-data/.
²de Oliveira Otto MC, Nettleton JA, Lemaitre RN et al. Biomarkers of dairy fatty acids and risk of cardiovascular disease in the Multi-ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis. J Am Heart Assoc. 2013;2(4):e000092. http://jaha.ahajournals.org/content/2/4/e000092. Published July 18, 2013. Accessed May 21, 2018.
³Scientific Report of the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee. Health.gov. http://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015-scientific-report/06-chapter-1/d1-3.asp. Updated May 22, 2018. Accessed May 22, 2018.
