00:00Well, thank you, Ranking Member Klobuchar, and thank you, Senator Bozeman, for allowing
00:04us to have this.
00:05But if you could just spare me a moment here, I've got to clear my throat a little bit.
00:13There, I can speak better now.
00:17You know, we all came to Congress with a reason, and I've sat down on my first day and had
00:21a list of ten things I wanted to do when I got here, you know, save the world, save Medicare,
00:28balance the budget, and get whole milk back in school.
00:32So this is a great day for us to have a hearing on this, and I do appreciate the members of
00:38the Ag Committee coming here and having this discussion as well.
00:43I think about whole milk growing up, where my grandparents delivered milk to us two or
00:48three times a week, and it was just part of our diet, part of a healthy diet, and how
00:53important whole milk is.
00:55You think about the MAHA movement, the Make America Healthy Again movement, it's about
00:58whole foods, and I think we could characterize whole milk as part of that MAHA movement as
01:03well.
01:04I think about the fat-soluble vitamins, which are so important, that we have to have some
01:09fat in our body to absorb vitamins A, D, E, and K.
01:13So maybe we'll just talk about, you know, there's bad fats, there's good fats, and ask
01:18Dr. Studi a little bit about what are the good fats, what are the good things in whole
01:23milk that separate it from the 1% and the lesser fat parts of milk?
01:33So first I do want to note, the dietary guidelines don't say that whole milk is a bad food to
01:41consume.
01:43There's nothing about the dietary guidelines.
01:44It does say that in general, considering what current consumptions are in the U.S., considering
01:51current health status of children and adolescents, generally most children should increase consumption,
01:57and probably the best way to do that is through lower fat options.
02:01But for those who eat a healthy diet, for those who are active, as you mentioned, athletes,
02:06you know, whole milk can be a great option.
02:09And so it really is thinking about the overall context of the diet, rather than kind of saying
02:16one food is good or bad.
02:19Dairy is a healthy choice, but it really matters what you're eating with that dairy.
02:23Well, I'm going to just talk a little bit more about healthy fats.
02:27And some of the good things about these healthy fats is it helps with hormone production.
02:33So think about adolescents going through puberty, those types of things.
02:36So there's good fats that help with that hormone production.
02:40And also I think there's good studies that show that healthy fats also decrease your
02:45appetite for later, that it has some satiety impact.
02:47Could you agree or expand on those thoughts?
02:52I am aware of that research.
02:53We haven't addressed it directly in the dietary guidelines, but it definitely, I'm aware of
02:58the research that you're referencing.
03:00So yes.
03:02And then you also would agree with me that whole milk has small amounts of omega-3 fatty
03:07acids which support brain health and inflammation control as well.
03:13Yes, the dietary guidelines actually recommend for those one to two years of age that plain
03:19whole milk be the type of dairy that is consumed because of the importance of whole milk to
03:25supporting brain development.
03:27And then after that point, the recommendation is to move towards lower fat.
03:31There's a bit of an evidence gap as to exactly when that transition to lower fat options
03:38might be most beneficial, but there's definitely benefits of plain whole milk, particularly
03:42in young children, to supporting brain development.
03:46Association doesn't necessarily determine cause, but I think as we saw whole milk come
03:51off of the school lunch menus, we also saw consumption of milk come down consistently.
03:57So Senator Durbin makes a good point about if it doesn't, it has to taste good.
04:05I don't know that I'm aware of any good studies either proving my point, but certainly it
04:08seems to me that whole milk tastes a whole lot better and that we've seen milk consumption
04:13go down when whole milk was taken out of the school lunches.
04:17Would that be accurate?
04:19I don't have data for specifically school meals and what has happened since, for example,
04:25the 2010-2012 when it moved towards just low-fat and fat-free, but we do see that, as you mentioned,
04:33at the national level.
04:34We see that milk consumption really, you know, drinking fluid milk started to decline in
04:39the early 2000s and it has continued to decline, and I think it is very concerning that current
04:47consumption in adolescents is about half a cup lower per day than it was, you know, two
04:53decades ago.
04:54Great.
04:55Great.
04:56I want to make one more point.
04:57I was going to save this question for one of the other witnesses, but I still want to
04:58make the point about my concern about osteoporosis and osteopenia.
05:03That bone mass density peaks around age 28, and what we're seeing now is a generation
05:09of people reaching that age that didn't drink milk and their bone mass, bone density is
05:14down a standard deviation.
05:16Maybe it's more than that.
05:17So while today most women start developing osteopenia, when you reach that peak bone
05:21mass at age 28, the rest of our life, that aging process starts.
05:25It's really hard to build bone mass beyond then.
05:30So we're going to have women develop osteopenia, osteoporosis a decade sooner, and we're going
05:34to see men suddenly also have osteopenia as well.
05:39And one thing I can't believe I forgot to do was to thank Senator Welch for his leadership
05:43in this, on this bill.
05:44Senator Fetterman, Gillibrand, Slotkin, King, McCormick, Grassley, Hidesmith, Risch, Crapo,
05:50Ernst and Collins for help supporting this as well.
05:53So Senator Welch, especially thank you for your leadership, Vermont known as a great
05:56milk state.
05:57So we'll have to come back later to catch the thoughts on osteopenia and prosthesis.
06:01I'm way past my time.
06:02So thank you, Ranking Member.
06:05Thank you very much.
06:06Appreciate it.
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