A Glass Half Full

A Glass Half Full https://aepc.us/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/iStock-1021583776-scaled.jpeg 2560 1875 AEPC Health AEPC Health //aepc.us/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/AEPC-LOGO-v1.png January 17, 2026 January 17, 2026

So many skills were learned during my childhood — horseback riding, paint-by-number, Go Fish — and, breaking and entering. Yes, breaking and entering (“B&E”) — a skill I mastered early on, with my siblings and friends serving as both accomplices and witnesses.

When the inevitable happened — a forgotten house key or a door accidentally locked behind us — it was time for a B&E. The process was straightforward. If an accomplice was around, they’d lift me up to the milk chute. I’d open the outer door, push the inner one, shimmy through the chute, and land on the kitchen counter. Hurray! — entry achieved without damage. At least to the house.

Milk chutes are largely a thing of the past, along with home milk delivery companies like Twin Pines, Sealtest, and Borden’s Dairy that thrived in the Detroit area from the 1920s through the 1970s. But milk itself remains a staple in many homes — and suddenly, it’s back in the news.

Milk’s Moments
Before pasteurization, milk was genuinely dangerous. Bacteria-laden supplies contributed to high infant mortality in growing cities. By the mid-19th century, milk became a focal point for improving urban child health. Pasteurization campaigns followed, with Chicago mandating it by 1908. Michigan went further, becoming the first state to require pasteurization in 1947.

Milk consumption soared during World War II. Fluid milk intake jumped from about 34 gallons per person in 1941 to a peak of 45 gallons in 1945. Wartime production raised incomes but limited consumer goods. Many foods — meat, butter, sugar — were rationed. Milk was not, and Americans drank it enthusiastically.

Since then, consumption has steadily declined. By the early 2000s, Americans were drinking less than 20 gallons per year. In 2023, the figure fell to about 14.9 gallons. The reasons are familiar: changing tastes, lactose intolerance awareness, competition from plant-based alternatives, and decades of low-fat dietary messaging. There was a modest uptick in 2024 — slightly under 1% — driven largely by renewed interest in whole milk, partly tied to evolving nutrition advice and a focus on protein intake.

School Milk, Remixed
Times have changed in school cafeterias too. When I was in elementary school, milk machines lined the halls. Insert a nickel, choose white or chocolate, and a carton popped out. Chocolate was forbidden in my house, so white it was.

This week, Donald J. Trump signed the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act, allowing schools in the National School Lunch Program to serve whole and 2% milk alongside fat-free and low-fat options. Under U.S. Department of Agriculture rules approved during the Barack Obama administration, schools were limited to fat-free or low-fat milk as part of efforts to curb childhood obesity. The new law also allows nutritionally equivalent nondairy beverages, such as fortified plant-based milks.

Flipping the Pyramid
The change follows new dietary guidance from federal health officials highlighting whole-fat dairy. For decades, Americans were told to cut fat to protect heart health, fueling an entire low-fat food industry. But newer research suggests fat behaves differently when it comes packaged in dairy.

At the same time, the guidelines maintain that saturated fat should remain under 10% of daily calories. This creates tension. The document emphasizes animal protein, full-fat dairy, butter, and beef tallow — all high in saturated fat — while still urging restraint. It’s difficult to reconcile those messages, especially without strong supporting evidence for labeling butter and tallow as “healthy fats.”

A Glass Half Full
Experts may disagree over school milk rules and dietary guidance, but there is a glass-half-full takeaway. These debates have renewed attention on nutrition at a moment when obesity rates are rising, reliance on costly GLP-1 drugs is increasing, and side effects and discontinuation remain persistent challenges.

Yet the glass is also half empty. Too often missing from nutrition debates are structural realities — incomes that do not stretch to healthier food and food deserts that limit access altogether.

As we mark Martin Luther King Jr. Day next week, it’s worth recalling Dr. King’s 1968 speech The Other America, delivered in Grosse Pointe Michigan just weeks before his assassination. His speech described two Americas: one overflowing with “the milk of prosperity and the honey of equality,” and another marked by poverty, unemployment, and racism.

Dr. King imagined a nation where prosperity nourished everyone. More than 50 years later, the “milk of prosperity” is still unevenly poured — and the work to achieve one America is far from done.

Happy reading,
Suzanne Daniels, Ph.D.

Hitting the Headlines: Obamacare enrollment declines, GLP-1 suicide warning dropped and Medicare Advantage overpayment estimated at $76 billion.
Beneath the Surface: construction workers suicide problem, risks of popular prescription painkiller, and lung cancer patient shame.
Well Informed: antivirals and the flu, new dietary guidelines, and aspirin myths.
Got Milk?: including my personal favorite, The chameleonic history of malted milk powder!