Ban chocolate milk? Not so fast

School foodservice officials who remove chocolate milk from menus in order to reduce students’ sugar consumption might actually be doing more harm than good, according to a Canadian study.

Researchers in the College of Pharmacy and Nutrition at the University of Saskatchewan have concluded that, instead of leading elementary school students to drink white milk instead of chocolate, removing chocolate milk often means that kids aren’t drinking any milk. The study, says researcher Hassan Vatanparast, demonstrated that schools that banned chocolate milk saw overall milk consumption drop by 48%.

The study followed students in grade 1 through 8 in six schools over 12 weeks. For purposes of the study, in the first four weeks both plain and flavored milks were offered. In the middle four weeks, only white milk was offered, and white and chocolate milk were offered the last four weeks.

“It’s obvious from our study that children enjoy flavored milk more,” Vatanparast told CTV News (Canadian television), warning that children not drinking milk run the risk of not getting enough calcium and vitamin D in their diets. “It’s really hard to have all of the nutrients that milk has.”