'It's So Important To Our Kids': Tommy Tuberville Advocates For Whole Milk In Schools

4/7/2025

During Tuesday's Senate Agricultural Committee hearing, Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) asked a witness about past dietary guidelines regarding dairy.

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Transcript

00:00Chairman, thank you, Doctor, for being here today. My former profession was

00:06working with students and kids, traveled to hundreds and hundreds of high schools across

00:12the country in all 50 states, ate at lunchrooms, and the food and most of them were atrocious.

00:19In 2010, we basically did away with milk for some reason. I can't imagine. I've got a new

00:31granddaughter. My daughter-in-law is breastfeeding. We looked at the formula that we could have been

00:42feeding my new granddaughter. We want to do away with something, we do away with that because it's

00:48nothing but sugar. We're going to look at something that's so important to our kids growing

00:53up and their physical attributes of growing up as a to an adult. We're looking at the possibility

01:01of milk being detrimental. It's mind-boggling to me, but I guess there's a lot more smarter

01:07people than me. I used to have a training table for players. All of our athletes, you could put

01:11milk and you put tea, you put water out there, they drink the milk. Athletes. There's a reason

01:16that they look a lot better than a lot of our kids nowadays. At the end of the day,

01:21we have to make a decision. What's better? I can't believe we're even getting involved in this.

01:27Science improves and changes over time. We know that. Our nutrition standards should not be what

01:33they were in 2010. They have to change. They have to change. As nutrition science data has changed,

01:39can you discuss the 2005 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee's conclusions on dairy

01:45consumption's effect on children? Just to clarify, just to make sure I heard you correctly,

01:52you were referencing the 2025 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee? Yes. Thank you. The 2025

02:00Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee did an extensive review. They convene as an external

02:06advisory committee. The 2025 committee had 20 members. They did an extensive review on all

02:12aspects of the diet, including dairy, data analysis, a number of systematic reviews,

02:18and food pattern modeling. At the end of the day, they looked at a lot of new evidence.

02:24There is evidence that's looking at food sources of saturated fat, so patterns that, or excuse me,

02:32dairy that has different amounts of saturated fat, these different types that are exactly the

02:37conversation today. They also did a number of food pattern modeling analyses to look,

02:42and what that does is looks to what happens if you change the amount of dairy in a pattern.

02:47At the end of the day, they found that you can't reduce the amount of dairy in a dietary pattern.

02:53The amount that's recommended still holds, and that's in large part because of all the nutrients

02:57that dairy provides. It's a good source and the major source of calcium, vitamin D, and about a

03:04dozen other nutrients in the diet. At the end of the day, there are recommendations to the

03:10departments, and I'll note that those are, that's advice to the departments for informing the next

03:16edition of the dietary guidelines, but their advice was to maintain the current guidance.

03:23Now, we are at a point, and Secretaries Rollins and Kennedy have acknowledged their commitment

03:29to supporting the development of the dietary guidelines to be released later this year,

03:34and they have also discussed doing a line-by-line review of the committee's report and basing

03:41the next edition of the dietary guidelines on science, so there will, I expect, be a lot more

03:47discussion related to the topic of dairy as well as other aspects of the diet, but at the end of

03:52the day, I think the committee just, the 2025 committee continued to emphasize the importance

03:58of dairy in a healthy dietary pattern. So at the end of the day, don't you agree that any milk,

04:05two percent, whole milk is much better for our kids growing up than soda?

04:14Yes. I think the point of the dietary guidelines is that there is flexibility. There's a number

04:20of different options within the dairy food group, and whether that be fat-free, low-fat, reduced-fat,

04:26whole milk, it's important to make selections that are right, that support individual needs

04:33and preferences, and in that context of the larger dietary pattern. Thank you.

'It's So Important To Our Kids': Tommy Tuberville Advocates For Whole Milk In Schools

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