Dietitians Urge Parents to Serve 'Milk W...( New York Moms Can Win a F...),Health

New York Moms Can Win a Free Year's Supply of Milk!

NEW YORK, Dec. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- As families gather around the dinner table, what was once a staple of the meal -- milk -- might be hard to find. Over the past decade, milk at dinner has steadily declined, and today nearly 60 percent of children's dinners do not include milk, according to findings from The NPD Group(1). Conversely, nearly one-third of all kids' meals are served with a soft drink or fruit drink-beverages that are often loaded with sugar and missing important nutrients.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20071204/NYTU097LOGO )

The percentage of overweight American children and teens has tripled in the last two decades and a recent report called What America Drinks(2) suggests that beverage choices may impact weight and the overall quality of the diet. With children consuming two to three times the amount of sweetened beverages as they do milk, mealtime presents the perfect opportunity for parents to control what their kids are drinking.

The New York State Dietetic Association and the American Dairy Association and Dairy Council, Inc. are urging parents to think about what's filling their children's glasses and to make milk the official drink of family meals.

"Choosing milk for family meals can have a real nutrition impact," says Beth Smythe, RD, a spokesperson and president-elect of the New York State Dietetic Association. "Each time you swap your child's soft drink for a glass of milk, you boost their intake of nine essential nutrients and they skip six teaspoons of sugar."

Local Survey Shows New York Moms Making Major Beverage Blunders

A survey of 1000 New York moms sponsored by the New York State Dietetic Association and the American Dairy Association found that only 28 percent said they served milk with dinner. Just as startling was the fact
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