We have run numerous articles about school districts banning
chocolate- and strawberry-flavored milk on lunch lines. Against
this backdrop, it is interesting to note what is happening in
Los Angeles. Last fall, the Los Angeles Unified School District
eliminated flavored milk in an effort to promote better eating
habits in children. Besides flavored milk, the district
eliminated chicken nuggets, corn dogs, nachos and other foods
perceived to be high in sodium, fat or sugar. The initiative
flopped. According to this item by two professors at Cornell
University, instead of making kids healthier by substituting in
healthy items like fresh pears and vegetable curry, “there have
been reports of a thriving trade in black-market junk food, of
pizzas delivered to side doors and of family-sized bags of chips
being brought from home. “Garbage cans are filling up with the
more nutritious food, even if kids aren’t,” say the professors,
who are co-directors of the Cornell Center for Behavioral
Economics in Child Nutrition