Reducing Soda in Schools: It Doesn't Work...

I remember reading the book Fast Food Nation a few years ago and one section stood out in my mind. It was about school's receiving money for allowing soft drink companies to promote/advertise their products through the school -- even as a logo covering the roof!

Interesting, but not surprising (sadly).

As usual, it comes down to what goes on at home. Although I don't advocate the advertising of the junk food industry, the main problem is how parents deal with the temptation their children have to eat rubbish.

Yes, I realize that there are nutritional differences. That being said:

8 oz Coke: 97 calories
8 oz 2% milk: 137 calories

If all you're going to do is go home and sit in front of your computer/PS3/XBox/etc., then it doesn't matter what form those calories take. The calories themselves are not "good" or "bad".

I'm not pro-"Big Beverage" or anything. I just think that taking pop machines out of the schools is a quick and visible solution to the wrong problem. It's something that school boards and PTAs can be proud of, even when it will have no effect on the final outcome.

This is sort of like saying, "Plugging a hole in a sinking boat that has 200 holes in it 'doesn't work,' so lets not plug it." The correct response is to plug the hole and get to work on hole number 2.

Not to mention that these same schools that pull sodas often replace them with Gatorade and fruit drinks which are both high in sugar.

The fact is that one soda isn't going to hurt a kid who has a healthy lifestyle. The kids who don't have healthy lifestyles will get sodas whether the school sells them or not.

It's better for the schools to spend more time on improving the school lunch program than to make empty gestures by removing sodas.

These 'pouring contracts' I think have done a lot of harm because they make soda so readily available and they have a 'hip and cool' component to them. But Amy is right - it HAS to start with parents at home. Parents provide both role-modelling and they are the gate-keepers for what choices their children have. My sister's children both automatically ask for and drink water even when there is a vending machine around. Why? They never buy soda, they always have water in the fridge and it's what both parents drink most.

The American Beverage Association and the nation's non-alcoholic beverage industry are proud of the work that we have done to reduce beverage calories shipped to schools. In just two years since beginning implementation of our national School Beverage Guidelines, we've cut beverage calories shipped to to schools by 58% and already have more than 75% of schools under contract in full compliance with the guidelines.

We worked with the William Clinton Foundation and the American Heart Association to develop the guidelines which pull out all full calroie soft drinks and cap the calories on sports drinks and juices. And we even checked with parents and pediatricians - and about 90% of them agreed that our guidelines hit the mark.

What's being lost in all this discussion though, is the need for more physical activity. No matter what is consumed, all calories in must be met with calories burned or else there will weight gain. And until we see more physical activity in children's lives, the scales will be tipped against our nation's kids.

This is interesting I still think schools should promote drinking more water and juices. Of course it matters what goes on at home. Since schools are such a huge part of a teenagers life, they should try to at least try to enchorage better habits.

Food education should start in the home from birth. If you don't let your children have soda (candy, chips, etc.), they won't know what they are missing. I want to scream everytime I see a child with soda in their bottle. To me that is a form of child abuse and is just complete ingnorance on the parents' part. My kids today (15 and 11) are only allowed soda on special occasions and even call me from friends houses to ask permission to have a soda if it was offered. Set a good example in the home, and they will follow suit!

I am not at all shocked that restricting soda from school campuses does not reduce the overall soda intake of students. Kids, especially teenagers can get their hands on soda anytime they want and restricting it might make the sugary beverage look even more appealing.

The thing is, soda is so ubiquitous in our society that kids are going to drink it. And why not? It's sweet, cold, tastes good, and it appeals to them. If they get used to drinking things that aren't so sweet, like water and tea, they won't like soda so much. And that's where parents come into play: they need to not buy soda and not introduce it to kids at a young age. I see toddlers drinking soda and it drives me insane. If your kids don't like plain water, put a few slices of lemon or a few frozen berries in it to give it a little flavor.

And I really don't even get the point of vending machines at schools in the first place. Maybe for high schools, because a lot of kids that age have extracurricular activities and want to grab a snack after school. But middle schools and elementary schools shouldn't have vending machines at all. My middle school didn't have vending machines, so we all had to either bring a drink from home or buy a milk from the cafeteria.

Why si soda better than cigarettes? It is actually even worse, but many brainwashed people still don't get it. The time will coma when all this huge companies that sell poison to us will have to pay for the damage they made.

Here is parenting at its finest:

"4) if she makes unhealthy choices, SHE is the one responsible for the outcome..."

...How idiotic. No wonder kids are getting fat. There is a literal translation in my head when i read a statement like that --> "What she does is not my problem"

There is a very EASY way to fix this... i recently wrote about in my blog, but i will state it here. REMOVE THE POP FROM YOUR HOUSE.

It's not that hard, and let me tell you, VERY effective. I can't remember the last time my family had carbonated beverages. It's one of those rare things we consume if we go out for dinner.

FlawlessFitnessBook.com

Another example of why the government should stay out of our lives. It's impossible to legislate good behavior. All that happens when schools take out the soft drinks is that schools don't get the vending machine money and kids, consequently, don't get academic materials. Kids WILL, however, get all the sugar-water they want. They'll just buy it somewhere else. The money goes to 7-11 instead of the schools. That's about the time the goody-goody liberals start crying that there isn't enough funding for education (so let's raise taxes).

In response to the comment about school lunch being more nutritious I believe you are way off base. Schools try to offer nutritious meals but if the students won't eat it because that is not what they eat at home then the school loses money. The school lunch program is the only program in the school that is supposed to be self-supporting which is almost impossible. That means they don't get handed a budget that they can just spend. It is based on projected lunches sold and should be able to cover all of there costs, labor included. The government subsidizes some of it but they also tell you what you have to serve everyday as far as
components in the meal and calories, fat etc. Why don't parents tell there boards that they want them to subsidize the lunch program with tax money so there kids can eat cheap like they do now and have tons of fresh fruits and vegetables, after all boards give the other support services there budgets and it's just left for them to spend. One other thing, students won't drink juice that has no extra sugar and you get stuck with it. They also won't eat low sugar cereal and it becomes out coded and you throw it away. All of these traits are learned at home. There are no easy answers but nutritious eating starts at home and then it would be carried into the schools. Once in the school then they could be offered the same food that they get at home without having to worry about a budget. It would be nice to hear something nice once in awhile about school lunch. Both my kids are in the health fields now and they ate school lunch everyday. They are not obese, they don't drink pop and not because it wasn't offered to them but because they were taught healthy eating habits.

There was an excellant study done on a school a couple year back. I can't remember where it was.. but they found that after lunch, most students were sleepy and not very attentive. They replaced all the vending machines with healthy options and got rid of all the pizza and hamburgers from lunch. The end result was an alert classroom who actually studied. At the end of the term, it showed that average grades increased.

The overall approach to issues like this is like the argument on global warming. It does not matter what your opinion is, whether global warming is real or not, the approach to cleaning up our planet is good regardless. The same with getting rid of junk food in schools. It does not matter if you think the science is bunk, isn't it great to reduce the amount of sugar and bad food from our children?