Flavored Milk - Healthy or Not?

I remember growing up that my mom would never buy chocolate or coffee milk syrups. It was not until I was in high school that we started to have it in the house. She use to say that plain milk was much healthier for us. This is the popular view of a lot of parents. They say that strawberry, chocolate, and coffee milk is not healthy for people because of the sweet taste. They feel that it cannot be very healthy for their children. So this poses the questions of, is flavored milk healthy?

After reading an article on this topic, I have come to the conclusion of....it depends. There is much research supporting the fact that flavored milk does not have an impact on obesity. There have been studies that show that children who drink plain milk and those who drink flavored milk have the same results on the body mass index. There have also been studies suggesting that flavored milk helps children drink milk over soft drinks. Some schools have been worried that flavored milk can cause obesity, that they have reduced their milk stock to just regular plain milk. This can result in more kids drinking soda as opposed to milk, or some other more healthy drink.

The reason I say that the answer to if flavored milk is healthy or not is it depends, is because just like every other food or drink in the world, it depends on the intake. Salad is a very healthy food, but if salad is the only thing you eat then that is very unhealthy. Milk is a great source of nutrients, but if milk is the only thing that we consume, then it is very unhealthy. Regardless of how many nutrients a food or drink may have and how healthy it can be for us, moderation is always the key!