Yes, fierce policy debates can erupt over the most seemingly innocuous subjects — take the furor that’s broken out over proposed (and a few enacted) bans on chocolate milk in public school districts. As a childhood obesity epidemic sweeps the nation, health officials are looking for new ways to cut calories from the nation’s youngsters’ diets. And chocolate milk, which boasts twice the calories of normal milk (and much more sugar), seemed like a reasonable candidate.

But in every case, the bans have set off complicated snafus involving multiple boards of education, the dairy industry at large, and local politics. And of course, it’s become an ideological battleground.

Here’s Governing.com with the background:

Some school districts have banned flavored milk completely. In Florida, the battle has become white-hot. The State Board of Education campaigned to pull chocolate milk out of lunchrooms, as part of its ongoing effort to eliminate sugared sodas and high-calorie desserts. When the board turned to flavored milk, opposition from the dairy industry flared. Big business was at stake — in 2010, the state’s four largest school districts spent $13 million on flavored milk, and students downed 49 million half-pints of the chocolate version.

School districts in California have enacted bans too, but subsequently reversed them after they were so unpopular, replacing the traditional chocolate milk with a modified, lower-fat version.

So complex has the mess grown that the federal government has waded in, as well as vociferous pundits from both sides of the aisle. Governing wonders, “Is it the USDA’s policy to promote good nutrition, low-fat milk, chocolate milk or milk production in general, regardless of flavor? One way or another, the answer is yes, to all four. Then there’s first lady Michelle Obama’s campaign for child nutrition, and Rep. Michele Bachmann’s charge that the first lady is trying to roll out a “nanny state.””

So which is it? Should nutritional values be enforced by the state — to the extent that fatty drinks be eliminated altogether? Yet, clearly, something has to change — a paradigm shift of some kind must occur soon in our nation’s eating habits, or much of the current generation will fall victim to obesity and the health woes that accompany it. But just about everyone has fond memories of sipping chocolate milk as a kid — is it cruel government overreach to wipe it off the menu? Add to the fact that some nutritionists think it’s a good idea to keep it around to use it as a transition to real milk, and things get even hairier …

What do you think — would you be willing to part with chocolate milk permanently if it’d help kids eat healthier?

Follow the Utopianist on Twitter and Facebook.

Photo credit: smoorenburg via Flickr/CC BY