Across the country, folks enjoy a tall, frosty glass on National Chocolate Milk Day, which is observed annually on September 27.
- An Irish physician named Sir Hans Sloane is the inventor of chocolate milk. Doctor and collector Sir Hans Sloane created the concoction all the way back in 1687.
- He brought back his chocolate milk recipe with him back to England from Jamaica, where it was manufactured and sold as medicine.
- Chocolate milk can boost calcium and vitamin D, which research shows is important for preserving cartilage and joint health.
- Research has found that cacao actually contains antibacterial agents that fight tooth decay. The problem is that the things that are added such as sugar and milk can still cause cavities.
- Drinking one large glass after you work out will boost muscle growth and speed recovery.
- All milk (flavored and unflavored) has the sugar lactose in it. In an eight-ounce glass of milk you will find 12 grams of lactose.
- Chocolate milk has between 8 and 12 additional grams of sugar added.4 So, about one-half of the sugar in chocolate milk is naturally-occurring lactose found in all milk.
- Only about 60 calories in chocolate milk are from added sugars, which is small relative to the powerhouse of nutrients it provides.
- One study in 49 elementary schools found that total milk consumption dropped an average of 35 percent when flavored milk was eliminated. Consumption dropped because fewer students were selecting milk at all, and more of the white milk that was selected was discarded.
- Another smaller study in 11 elementary schools found when chocolate milk was banned from the cafeteria, milk sales declined by almost 10 percent, 30 percent of the white milk was thrown away, and 7 percent fewer students chose to eat school lunches!
- Finally, a study in Canada found during a one-month trial where chocolate milk was removed, almost one-half of the students who were using the milk program stopped drinking milk in school. During this time there was no adaptation to drink more white milk.
- Two actors who got a big career boost from chocolate milk: Adam West and Peter Billingsley. The former starred as a spy mascot named Captain Quik in early-1960s advertisements for Nestle Quik chocolate milk mix. That got the attention of producers of a new Batman TV series.
- About two decades later, Billingsley, best known for A Christmas Story, was all over TV as Hershey’s Syrup commercial character “Messy Marvin.”
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