A team of Canadian researchers has found that when flavoured milk is removed from the school, total milk intake drops by nearly half.
Current policies in many schools here have led to the removal of flavoured milk because of the amount of added sugar.
For the study, researchers from University of Saskatchewan measured milk consumption (plain milk and flavoured milk) by children in a sample of Saskatoon elementary schools.
The study showed that a very low number of children were drinking milk in school.
The numbers dropped significantly (41 percent) when flavoured milk was removed.
They used nutrient modelling to replace what was lost when children stopped drinking milk and found that combinations of foods tested were not feasible due to cost and the number of additional foods needed to replace the missing nutrients.
Additionally, of the students who chose plain milk, there was a greater amount of milk wasted.
The authors suggest that policies should be in place to promote drinking milk rather than limiting it.
The paper appeared in the journal Canadian Science Publishing.
