Milk is the newest item on President Donald Trump’s agenda, as he recently signed a new law overturning regulations on high-fat milk options in schools. The “Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act,” which was unanimously passed by Congress last fall, will lift a previous ban on whole milk and 2% fat milk in the National School Lunch Program.
“It will ensure that millions of school-age children will have access to high-quality milk as we ‘Make America Healthy Again,’” Trump said, signing the law with a jug of milk on his desk, per the New York Times.
“Removing whole milk did not improve health; it damaged it,” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. added, according to CNN. “Milk fat is not junk food.”
In 2010, former President Obama signed the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, directing schools to serve healthier, more wholesome foods in an effort to end childhood obesity. At the time, the federal law cited one in three children in the US as either obese or overweight. Under the belief that whole, full-fat milks contributed to the growing problem of child obesity, the program only permitted flavored and unflavored nonfat or low-fat milk to be served in the federally funded, low-cost, or free meals offered to students.
Now, over a decade later, the Trump administration is prioritizing healthy fats and full-fat dairy. Kennedy Jr. encouraged Americans consume more cheese and whole milk in the recently released dietary guidelines. The push is part of a previous vow the HHS Secretary made to end “the attack on whole milk, cheese and yogurt,” as reported by The New York Times. Since then, the Trump-led administration has begun its “Got Milk?” milk mustache-inspired campaign to get Americans to consume more dairy products.
“Since 2012, when federal nutrition rules took whole and 2% milk out of school meals programs, dairy farmers and their cooperatives have pointed out the flaws in that decision, which wasn’t aligned with consumer choice,” Gregg Doud, CEO of the National Milk Producers Federation, claimed in a statement to CNN.
In addition to reintroducing whole milk and2% milk back into the National School Lunch Program, the new law also allows parents to request substitute options without the previously required doctor’s note.
