'Get Whole Milk Back In Schools': Roger Marshall Chugs Milk To Highlight Its Benefits To Students

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During Tuesday's Senate Agriculture Committee Hearing On Reviewing Whole Milk For Healthy Kids, Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) drank milk during the hearing to highlight how whole milk gets good fats into your system and prevents the development of osteoporosis later in life.  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript   Stay Connected Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com

Transcript

00:00Well, thank you, Ranking Member Klobuchar, and thank you, Senator Bozeman, for allowing

00:04us to have this.

00:05But if you could just spare me a moment here, I've got to clear my throat a little bit.

00:13There, I can speak better now.

00:17You know, we all came to Congress with a reason, and I've sat down on my first day and had

00:21a list of ten things I wanted to do when I got here, you know, save the world, save Medicare,

00:28balance the budget, and get whole milk back in school.

00:32So this is a great day for us to have a hearing on this, and I do appreciate the members of

00:38the Ag Committee coming here and having this discussion as well.

00:43I think about whole milk growing up, where my grandparents delivered milk to us two or

00:48three times a week, and it was just part of our diet, part of a healthy diet, and how

00:53important whole milk is.

00:55You think about the MAHA movement, the Make America Healthy Again movement, it's about

00:58whole foods, and I think we could characterize whole milk as part of that MAHA movement as

01:03well.

01:04I think about the fat-soluble vitamins, which are so important, that we have to have some

01:09fat in our body to absorb vitamins A, D, E, and K.

01:13So maybe we'll just talk about, you know, there's bad fats, there's good fats, and ask

01:18Dr. Studi a little bit about what are the good fats, what are the good things in whole

01:23milk that separate it from the 1% and the lesser fat parts of milk?

01:33So first I do want to note, the dietary guidelines don't say that whole milk is a bad food to

01:41consume.

01:43There's nothing about the dietary guidelines.

01:44It does say that in general, considering what current consumptions are in the U.S., considering

01:51current health status of children and adolescents, generally most children should increase consumption,

01:57and probably the best way to do that is through lower fat options.

02:01But for those who eat a healthy diet, for those who are active, as you mentioned, athletes,

02:06you know, whole milk can be a great option.

02:09And so it really is thinking about the overall context of the diet, rather than kind of saying

02:16one food is good or bad.

02:19Dairy is a healthy choice, but it really matters what you're eating with that dairy.

02:23Well, I'm going to just talk a little bit more about healthy fats.

02:27And some of the good things about these healthy fats is it helps with hormone production.

02:33So think about adolescents going through puberty, those types of things.

02:36So there's good fats that help with that hormone production.

02:40And also I think there's good studies that show that healthy fats also decrease your

02:45appetite for later, that it has some satiety impact.

02:47Could you agree or expand on those thoughts?

02:52I am aware of that research.

02:53We haven't addressed it directly in the dietary guidelines, but it definitely, I'm aware of

02:58the research that you're referencing.

03:00So yes.

03:02And then you also would agree with me that whole milk has small amounts of omega-3 fatty

03:07acids which support brain health and inflammation control as well.

03:13Yes, the dietary guidelines actually recommend for those one to two years of age that plain

03:19whole milk be the type of dairy that is consumed because of the importance of whole milk to

03:25supporting brain development.

03:27And then after that point, the recommendation is to move towards lower fat.

03:31There's a bit of an evidence gap as to exactly when that transition to lower fat options

03:38might be most beneficial, but there's definitely benefits of plain whole milk, particularly

03:42in young children, to supporting brain development.

03:46Association doesn't necessarily determine cause, but I think as we saw whole milk come

03:51off of the school lunch menus, we also saw consumption of milk come down consistently.

03:57So Senator Durbin makes a good point about if it doesn't, it has to taste good.

04:05I don't know that I'm aware of any good studies either proving my point, but certainly it

04:08seems to me that whole milk tastes a whole lot better and that we've seen milk consumption

04:13go down when whole milk was taken out of the school lunches.

04:17Would that be accurate?

04:19I don't have data for specifically school meals and what has happened since, for example,

04:25the 2010-2012 when it moved towards just low-fat and fat-free, but we do see that, as you mentioned,

04:33at the national level.

04:34We see that milk consumption really, you know, drinking fluid milk started to decline in

04:39the early 2000s and it has continued to decline, and I think it is very concerning that current

04:47consumption in adolescents is about half a cup lower per day than it was, you know, two

04:53decades ago.

04:54Great.

04:55Great.

04:56I want to make one more point.

04:57I was going to save this question for one of the other witnesses, but I still want to

04:58make the point about my concern about osteoporosis and osteopenia.

05:03That bone mass density peaks around age 28, and what we're seeing now is a generation

05:09of people reaching that age that didn't drink milk and their bone mass, bone density is

05:14down a standard deviation.

05:16Maybe it's more than that.

05:17So while today most women start developing osteopenia, when you reach that peak bone

05:21mass at age 28, the rest of our life, that aging process starts.

05:25It's really hard to build bone mass beyond then.

05:30So we're going to have women develop osteopenia, osteoporosis a decade sooner, and we're going

05:34to see men suddenly also have osteopenia as well.

05:39And one thing I can't believe I forgot to do was to thank Senator Welch for his leadership

05:43in this, on this bill.

05:44Senator Fetterman, Gillibrand, Slotkin, King, McCormick, Grassley, Hidesmith, Risch, Crapo,

05:50Ernst and Collins for help supporting this as well.

05:53So Senator Welch, especially thank you for your leadership, Vermont known as a great

05:56milk state.

05:57So we'll have to come back later to catch the thoughts on osteopenia and prosthesis.

06:01I'm way past my time.

06:02So thank you, Ranking Member.

06:05Thank you very much.

06:06Appreciate it.

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