This Yahoo! news story should have been listed under “Oddly Enough” because it truly demonstrates the idiocy that humans can exhibit at times.  The Illinois Board of Education is considering a proposal to ban milk - a food that in most of our nutrition classes receives a “thumbs up,” but plans to keep potato chips, which are clearly junk food.  The argument is that whole milk contains more fat and calories than one ounce of potato chips, so chips make the cut, and milk does not.  But, who eats one ounce of chips?  And what additives do those chips contain that would be otherwise harmful? 

We are going to weird extremes these days to combat obesity.  I really doubt that kids are getting fat from drinking too much milk.  While whole milk shouldn’t necessarily be the beverage of choice, we have to draw the line before we start creating policies that favor unrealistic portions of potato chips vs. milk in schools.  And suppose that you as a parent are working diligently with your kids to teach good eating habits, what do you tell them when they come home and report that chips have made it back to the vending machines, but the milk is gone?  I am truly scared of the day my kids march into elementary school, because who knows what newfangled moronic idea our legislators will have cooked up by then?