For years, legislators and school leaders have been purging sugary items from lunch menus and school vending machines, but most students can still get their hands on one sweet treat: chocolate milk.

In many districts, it is the sacred cow of school cafeterias and among the more controversial issues in education, with the debate typically centering on whether chocolate milk is better than no milk, nutritionally speaking.

In San Francisco, district officials have decided the answer is no.

The district will officially ban chocolate milk, starting in elementary and middle schools this fall and expanding to high schools in the spring.

Officials tested the idea in five schools over the past school year and found that in two, there was no decrease in the number of milk cartons kids put on their trays, and there was only a slight dip in the other three.

“The kids grumbled about it for a couple of days,” said Libby Albert, executive director of the district’s Student Nutrition Services.

But for the most part, they just switched to white milk, she said.

That switch cuts about 35 to 40 calories and 10 grams of sugar from a student’s daily intake, supporters say. And that adds up.

One carton of chocolate milk includes about 40 percent of the recommended daily allowance of sugar in a child’s diet, said Marlene Schwartz, director of the University of Connecticut Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity.

“If that’s their one sort of sweet treat, then that’s fine,” she said. “I think the reason flavored milk has gotten attacked is that it’s a waste of that sugar.”

But banning chocolate milk might not be the best choice for every school, she said.

Schwartz, who will release a study later this week on flavored milk, said in some schools, kids will drink plain milk without complaint. In other schools, where there are students who strongly prefer flavored milk and who might have nutritional deficiencies, it might make more sense to offer chocolate milk to ensure they get the calcium, vitamin D and potassium they need.

“You kind of have to know your student body,” she said. “Districts have to make an informed decision.”

That said, national data show most kids drink plain milk, especially at home, and that they will drink it at school as well if that’s all that’s available, Schwartz added.

“Kids are always going to choose flavored milk over regular milk because sweet tastes better,” she said. “That shouldn’t be the reason that you (offer) it.”

For six years, Los Angeles Unified didn’t offer it, citing the same argument against extra sugar as San Francisco when it banned chocolate milk in 2011.

But now, the largest district in California has reversed course, conducting its own pilot study at 21 schools last year to see if offering chocolate milk again would increase milk consumption and reduce waste.

Back to Gallery Chocolate milk booted off the menu at SF school cafeterias 4 1 of 4 Photo: Liz Hafalia, The Chronicle 2 of 4 Photo: Liz Hafalia, The Chronicle 3 of 4 Photo: Liz Hafalia, The Chronicle 4 of 4 Photo: Liz Hafalia, The Chronicle







The answer was yes.

District officials there found that serving chocolate milk could mean an increase of 12.5 million cartons consumed rather than wasted each year — which would translate to a 23 percent increase in milk consumption. District officials put chocolate milk back in all the district’s schools this spring.

Los Angeles’ results mirrored those from a 2014 Cornell University study, which found that while banning chocolate milk could reduce calorie and sugar consumption, it could also mean less milk consumed, more waste and fewer kids buying school lunch.

“Food service managers need to carefully weigh the costs and benefits of eliminating chocolate milk and should consider alternative options that make white milk more convenient, attractive, and normal to choose,” the Cornell authors wrote.

In addition, a 2009 study cited by the American Heart Association found that both flavored and plain milk provide a nutritional boost without adverse effects on weight in children and adolescents. Plain milk also has sugar, experts note — about 12 grams of sugar lactose in a school lunch carton.

In San Francisco, however, district officials steadfastly believe less sugar is better, and they are confident that the city’s students — already used to soda-free schools and lunches without cookies or other sweets — will adapt to the chocolate milk ban.

Based on an informal survey of elementary and middle school students attending the summer session at George Washington High School, they may be right.

Most students eating either the turkey melt or black bean salad offered at lunch said they didn’t care whether chocolate milk was offered or not.

“I can still drink regular,” Danny Wu, 12, said as he drank the last of a carton of plain milk, the only kind offered in summer school since 2015. “I’d rather choose chocolate milk, but I’m fine with whatever.”

Sebastian Ong, 8, declared chocolate milk “yummy and delicious,” and the absence of of it at school would be “a bummer, but whatever.”

While the plain milk carton on his tray was empty, a banana remained untouched. The third-grader said he is very much opposed to squishy fruit.

Naijella Raybon, 9, was among the few who expressed something akin to despair at the chocolate milk ban.

“Nooooooo!” she said, pretending to wipe tears from her eyes. “It was my only source of (beverage). It’s tasty, and it’s so good to drink.”

School board member Matt Haney sympathized with students like Naijella, but remained steadfast.

“Just like many people, I have some nostalgia around drinking chocolate milk at lunch as a kid,” he said. “But if this change helps reduce overall sugar intake and improves student nutrition and wellness, it seems like a positive thing to me.”

Jill Tucker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jtucker@sfchronicle.com Twitter:@jilltucker