Pressure is increasing on schools to remove that nutritional disaster called soda from their vending machines and replace it with healthy fare like water, juice, and milk. In response, the soft drink manufacturers, not to be caught with their profits down, have succeeded in spinning milk into soda. Take a delicious bottle of milk, add sugar, artificial flavor, and sometimes even carbonation, give it a name like Milky Way, Starburst, or Bubble Blast, and voila! — a drink no calf would recognize.
Schools are happy; they can continue to expect income from their highly profitable vending machines. Soft drink companies are happy; they've found a way around the threat to evict them from campus. Apparently even mothers are happy, as they are finding this an easier way to get some of the benefits of milk to children who whine for breakfast soda. So why am I such a grumpy old lady about this new trend? After all, I do love hot cocoa, an early form of sugared, flavored milk, and I'll admit a cup of steaming Milky Way flavored milk on a cold night sounds delightful. Two things, I suppose: There's a difference between an occasional cup of cocoa and having fat-laden, artificially flavored sugared drinks several times a day; moreover, I am saddened at the realization that so many of the next generation are growing up with no knowledge of the delights in drinking plain, cold, smooth, perfect-with-a-plate-of-Grandma's-cookies milk.
