Most high schools and elementary schools in the U.S. have vending machines that make soft drinks available to kids all day long at school. The health consequences of this policy are significant. Studies continue to show that calories consumed in beverages do not result in corresponding reductions in the amount of calories consumed in foods. A child who is consuming one soft drink, one container of juice and one container of flavored milk simply adds 600 more calories to his daily consumption. The result is weight gain of over 1 pound per week, which is one major contributing factor to our kids developing weight problems.
One justification for this abominable policy is that the schools need the money that soft drink sales generate. I am quite outspoken on this issue, and many disagree with me, but I think a better public policy would be for schools to live within their means instead of peddling junk foods to kids in order to support their habits.
But let's look at how much money soft drink sales really generate. The most lucrative soda vending contract the Center for Science in the Public Interest could find when it researched the issue yielded $30 per student per year, which translated to less than .1% of the school system's budget.
Susan Combs, with the State of Texas, looked even more closely at the financial benefits of soft drink machines. At the time of her audit, Texas schools were bringing in $54 million from soft drink sales. This sounds impressive, until you consider that the schools were simultaneously losing $60 million from cafeteria sales due to competition from vending machines.
This information led to one of the most aggressive policies in the country. Since 2004, Texas has banned the sale of many junk foods and soft drinks in elementary schools, and also bans competitive foods from being sold in middle and high schools during lunch time.
The soft drink companies, however, are persistent and they play on the ignorance of the general population. The New York City Schools banned soft drink sales but then signed an $8 million contract making Snapple the official drink of the New York City Schools. Fruit drinks and 100% juice are sold along with bottled water, but this represents marginal, if any improvement. Kids should be consuming a diet comprised of whole foods, not calorie-laden beverages. And, the availability of these foods in schools provides an inherent stamp of approval for them, which is completely inappropriate.
One argument for continuing to offer soft drinks is that kids are going to drink them anyway, so we might as well make them available in schools. I'm dating myself here, but when I was in school smoking lounges were justified this way. Kids were going to smoke anyway, so we might as well let them do it at school. At some point, we woke up and realized that this was incredibly faulty thinking, and I think it's time to come to the same conclusion with what our kids eat and drink at school. If not, where will this thinking stop? Many kids will take drugs anyway, and God knows they would generate a huge profit for schools, so perhaps those should be sold too. Lots of kids experiment with alcohol so perhaps a bar in the high schools would offer a safer environment in which to do so - think of the profits you could generate there! One might argue that drugs and alcohol are quite different from junk foods and sodas, but not so much - both are healthy destroying, but some just work faster than others!
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