Countering Chocolate Milk Concussion Claims

Chocolate milk doesn’t help concussions. But the dairy industry wants you to think it does. So it funded a study on high school football players that’s now being called into question. The university that conducted the study is even saying that people should not rely on results described in its recent new release. Dairy deception like this is nothing new. We’ve been debunking it for more than 20 years.

Nobody needs milk, including the teen boys in this study. All milk products—including Fifth Quarter Fresh, the “high-protein chocolate milk” used in the study—contain two things the 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans say teen boys already have too much of in their diet: protein and added sugar. Fifth Quarter Fresh has 20 grams of protein and 42 grams of sugar.

There are many other health reasons for everyone to ditch dairy, including increased risk for cardiovascular disease, prostate cancer, lung, breast, and ovarian cancers, bone fractures, and death.

The dairy industry’s health claims are not only deceitful, they are dangerous. It’s why we’ve spent decades working to expose milk myths.