Today, the House Education and Workforce Committee will consider the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act of 2023 (HR 1147), a misguided and harmful bill that gives prioritizing corporate interests over children’s health. HR 1147 would allow school meals to offer whole milk, thereby increasing the overall intake of saturated fat in school meals, which is inconsistent with recommendations in the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
The law requires school meals to meet guidelines, which clearly recommend limiting saturated fat consumption and choosing fat-free and low-fat milk. Schools are already legally required to offer fat-free or low-fat milk, flavored or unflavored, with every school meal, and meals must meet a saturated fat cap that meets the guidelines.
Even with current scientific guidelines in place, most children exceed recommended limits for saturated fat during their day, which is troublesome given that excessive saturated fat consumption is linked to increased LDL cholesterol ( “bad”), a known cause of heart disease. One in five school-age children already has unfavorable cholesterol levels, which could get even worse under HR 1147. In effect, the bill overrides previous congressional directives simply because the dairy industry wants it to.
Big Dairy also gathered bipartisan support for the state legislation by new York (which failed to move forward) And Pennsylvania while running Public relations campaigns seek to cast doubt on Science saturated fats.
Thanks to updated, science-based school nutrition standards required by the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, which included replacing whole milk with low-fat and non-fat milk, school meals are meals the healthiest ones that many children consume. Congress should not reverse this hard-won victory by making school lunches less healthy by allowing whole milk. The Center for Science in the Public Interest urges Congress to protect children’s health and oppose H.R. 1147.
