x
Breaking News
More () »

Effort to ban chocolate milk vetoed by Connecticut governor

The governor of Connecticut says he vetoed a bill that would ban chocolate milk and some juices in schools because kids would skip the health benefits those bev...
Chocolate Milk

Hartford, CT (WFSB) — A chocolate milk ban is not in the cards for Connecticut schools, according to the governor.

Gov. Dannel Malloy vetoed the bill on Thursday and said that a ban would deny children some health benefits.

“What ultimately would have happened is children would have ended up drinking less milk, getting less calcium, and we might have had difficulty fulfilling the milk requirement because we had heard from a number of providers that without chocolate milk, they wouldn’t be interested in providing,” Malloy said.

Malloy said his administration received input from a number of people who reached out to him and he agreed that not banning the sweet drink was the right thing to do.

“The idea of having children not consuming appropriate amounts of calcium outweighed those things,” said Malloy.

State legislators approved a measure last month that would ban chocolate milk and some juices in public schools. While the governor said he is not opposed to individual school districts having the choice to eliminate the sale of chocolate milk in their schools, he does not support a ban.

In a letter to the Secretary of State, Malloy said dietary guidelines for Americans recommend that children consume three servings of nonfat or low-fat dairy per day. He said research has shown that when chocolate milk is removed as an option, total milk consumption goes down and milk waste increases.

The proposal called for only low-fat unflavored milk along with beverages that contained no artificial sweeteners, added sodium or a lot of sugar to be available to students.

However, some experts said milk consumption would drastically drop if the ban went into place.

Malloy said he couldn’t let that happen.

“I love chocolate milk,” he said.

To read Malloy’s complete letter to Secretary of State Denise Merrill click here.

Before You Leave, Check This Out