Marcia Ehinger is a retired physician who writes in many genres, poetry and prose. A member of the Sacramento Branch of the California Writers Club, she has had poems and short stories published in several CWC anthologies and the regional medical society journal.
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Got Milk?
Got Milk?
Full-fat milk is making a comeback with the 2025–2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, promoted by U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.. The website RealFood.gov urges Americans to MAHA (Make America Healthy Again), boasting, “These guidelines mark the most significant reset of federal nutrition policy in our nation’s history.”
Claiming that the Standard American Diet relies heavily on highly processed foods and a sedentary lifestyle, RFK Jr. is emphasizing nutrient-dense foods and “realigning our food system to support American farmers, ranchers, and companies who grow and produce real food.”
The new upside-down food pyramid places “healthy fats” from meats and full-fat dairy at the top left, vegetables and fruits on the right, and whole grains at the bottom. Cooking fats prioritize oils with essential fatty acids, such as olive oil, though butter and beef tallow are also options. As chefs know, “Fat is flavor.”
For decades, Americans have worried about the health effects of fats, especially saturated fats. Research has shown an association between solid animal fats—such as butter and beef tallow—and increased cholesterol, heart disease, and cancer. Liquid full-fat milk may not pose the same risks. Young children need it for brain growth during the preschool years, and teens benefit from its calcium content to build strong bones. In general, whole milk promotes satiety, leading people to drink less than they do lower-fat milks.
“Got Milk?” is now being touted as a renewed campaign for whole (full-fat) milk. The original “Got Milk?” ads launched in 1993 through the California Milk Processor Board, aiming to reverse declining milk consumption, particularly among young people. The ads focused on the frustration of running out of milk rather than on health benefits. The “Milk Mustache” celebrity campaign followed in 1995 and became one of the most recognizable advertising efforts in U.S. history.
The first ads of 2026 depict RFK Jr. transported into a nightclub scene after drinking milk, alongside Donald Trump sporting the iconic milk mustache. In January 2026, Trump was also portrayed as a milkman delivering glass bottles to promote his signing of the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act of 2025. Schools participating in the National School Lunch Program may now offer whole or 2% milk, flavored or unflavored. This reverses Barack Obama’s 2012 policy limiting school milk options to low-fat or fat-free varieties.
The new program resulted from a decade-long push by Representative Glenn T. Thompson, a Pennsylvania Republican, chair of the House Agriculture Committee, and a proud descendant of dairy farmers. He has been praised as “the most effective voice for dairy farmers nationwide.”
Thompson argues that milk consumption among schoolchildren declined during the Obama administration because reduced-fat or skim milk simply doesn’t taste as good as whole milk. Once again, the chef’s adage applies: fat is flavor.
Yet the original “Got Milk?” campaign coincided with an overall decline in milk consumption, despite the ads’ popularity. It is also unclear how relevant the milkman imagery will be today. Home milk delivery declined sharply in the 1970s and was nearly extinct twenty years later. How many people today even remember the milkman?
If the government is not emphasizing the health benefits of milk, perhaps the economic incentives deserve closer examination.
In 2025, the U.S. dairy industry generated an economic impact of $780 billion—about 3% of GDP—employing more than 3 million people and exporting over $8 billion in products to a growing global market.
California has been the nation’s leading dairy state since 1993, ranking first in the production of milk, butter, ice cream, and nonfat dry milk, and second in cheese and yogurt. One out of every five U.S. dairy cows lives in California.
The top two dairy states—California and Wisconsin—together produce one-third of U.S. dairy products. Nearly half of California’s milk is used for cheese production. Cheese consumption continues to rise, driven by demand for pizza and comfort foods that became even more popular during pandemic stay-at-home periods, such as grilled cheese, nachos, and mac ’n’ cheese.
As the California Milk Advisory Board famously declared in the early 2000s, “Great cheese comes from happy cows. Happy cows come from California.”
Milk may be good for our health—but it may also be filling coffers.
~ Marcia Ehinger
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