A deal announced today by the William J Clinton foundation states that 4 of the major distributors of soda have agreed to distribute only water, un-sweetened juices, and low-fat milks to schools. Further, Diet soda will only be distributed to high-schools.
Cadbury Schweppes PLC, Coca-Cola Co., PepsiCo Inc. and the American Beverage Association have all signed onto the deal, Carson said, adding that the companies serve “the vast majority of schools.” The American Beverage Association represents the majority of school vending bottlers.
This is bound to make a few people angry, but I think it’s an excellent idea. Considering that each regular soda carries with it about 150 empty calories, drinking more than one a day can seriously add on to daily caloric intake. At one time, the job I had allowed me free soda. I easily drank a 6-pack of soda during a 7 hour shift. That adds up to nearly one-half of my recommended daily caloric intake. In an effort to cut those calories out, I made the switch to diet sodas and lost 30 pounds in two months. The only change I made was the switch to diet soda. Both my wife and I now normally drink diet soda only. We have already discussed continuing to use only diet soda and other drinks after our child is born. Obviously, we’ll have to supplement that with things like milk and fruit juice eventually, but we’ll do our best to have our child ask for a diet soda when he/she is 10 rather than a calorically loaded fat bomb.
Hopefully, this deal will hold up under scrutiny as it would be nice to know that when my child goes to school, he/she isn’t being given things that I wouldn’t give them at home. While the deal isn’t a solve-all, it certainly is a move in the right direction by the schools to help avoid/solve the childhood obesity problem that is rampant in our country.
About Shane Ede
That’s cool. You’re kid is lucky if she gets soda at all, my parents wouldn’t even let me drink it until I was 10 because the other chemicals in it aren’t the slightest bit nutritious anyways. I must congratulate you on the switch though and I definately agree with you when I comes to not allowing your kid to drink whole calorie pop. I was just reading the other day that pop is now considered one of the primary causes of obesity in children in america these days.
the key word there is “choice.” you chose to switch to diet soda. taking the option away from kids isn’t going to fix the problem… like with most rules, they’ll manage to find a way around it. like buying it off campus and bringing it with them.
You’re right. It is a choice. Except, as a kid, the choices get made for you more often than not. Do you give your kids the choice to do drugs or not? I didn’t think so.