What is going on with WHO?
The news this week about US dairy organisations and producers asking the American White House, to challenge a World Health Organization (WHO) proposal discouraging the consumption of dairy products by young children, by discouraging the promotion of milk and milk products to them, saddens me. In the US, a country where children suffer from obesity and malnutrition via an oversupply of processed foods, a recommendation to turn away from a product that is highly nutritious and cheap seems to be nothing short of madness on the part of the WHO.
One glass of milk can offer such nutrition in an eight-ounce glass, it seems nothing short of insanity to suggest otherwise. Fromage frais and yogurts are such good ways to get nutrients into a small child. In developing countries, milk powders and UHT products offer cheap ways to get children loaded up with vitamins, minerals, protein and calcium.
I know from personal experience that sometimes getting children to eat good, healthy food is a challenge. Anything that makes that task harder, or makes already stressed parents worried about dairy, is an exercise in madness, in my humble opinion. Parents just don’t know – I once watched, horrified, as my friend discouraged her young child from drinking a chocolate milkshake, and steered him towards apple juice instead, on the grounds of sugar content. This proposal isn’t going to make the message any clearer.
In these days of instant social media trends, let’s not demonize a good, healthy, nutritious product like dairy, because there are loads of people out there who will happily do that for us outside of international organisations.
The WHO has a responsibility to parents and children to offer clear, sane advice about nutrition. Milk is a safe, nutritious product, and the US dairy industry is right to ask for help to stop the degradation and denigration of this quality food.
