Thanks for the thoughtful comment Laurie, although...

2011-05-11T07:34:01.412-04:00

Thanks for the thoughtful comment Laurie, although we certainly don't agree.

I don't think it's a grey area at all.

Sugar sweetened beverages are like the single greatest contributor to obesity in society.

Suggesting schools provide them to children so that they can get adequate milk intake is akin to suggesting schools serve apple pie to students to ensure they eat apples.

I am a Canadian RD who has worked in Ontario, Nova...

2011-05-11T07:28:17.010-04:00

I am a Canadian RD who has worked in Ontario, Nova Scotia and PEI and have comments regarding this post.

Unfortunately, matters of nutrition are not black and white. Schools are not endorsing chocolate bars to be served, but chocolate milk (also, we are not talking about chocolate drinks or beverages). Yes, they are comparable re: sugar content. The question is, if you are trying to encourage healthy intake of nutrients, what other option is there if some children won't drink white milk? Maybe this is an opportunity for dairy producers on PEI to reevaluate addition of sugar to chocolate milk? As a health care professional, hopefully you could see the vast grey area of nutrition and that it is definitely not black and white and support the efforts of other health professionals instead of attempting to break down strides towards a healthier school environment.

Registered Dietitians' work with current culture to encourage healthy populations through education. They know what is ideal, but unfortunately, the current culture represents the grey area which is opportunity to change and can take years. Your statement that things are black and white are extremely false and may be true if this world was the ideal where basically all the determinants of health were considered null and void. This is maybe easier for a surgeon to state yet in this case is not transferrable.

Out of curiosity, have you worked on PEI? It's always easiest to judge efforts when you are outside looking in, but being able to see the big picture takes educational curiosity to research all issues and be an informed professional.

Those are only my comments in response to your blog entry. We are all health professionals working towards the same goal, therefore it's unfortunate more support can't be given towards the solution instead of putting those on the stand like Charmaine Campbell and Jennifer Taylor, whose efforts surrounding all nutrition issues on PEI (not only school health) are exhaustive and have resulted in great strides for the Island, but unfortunately I do not see blog entries by you or Andrea Tomkins re: any successes.

Any strides in culture change towards optimal health come with many challenges. Working with populations are extremely difficult and vary from counseling an individual patient. PEI RD's are not serving a liquid chocolate bar to students, but are reacting to the need for a healthier option to pop and other 'empty nutrient' foods. In this case, chocolate milk is the next best option. Like Jennifer Taylor indicated, the ideal is for students to be drinking white milk, unfortunately we are not there yet and are struggling for some students to drink white milk (I am unsure of the numbers). My suggestion is to review the research conducted re: nutrient intake of Island children that is available.

One step at a time.

Comments on Weighty Matters: The PEI Healthy Eating Alliance endorses chocolate...

Thanks for the thoughtful comment Laurie, although...

I am a Canadian RD who has worked in Ontario, Nova...