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School soda plan a start, not a finish

Taking sodas out of schools can help, but it's not enough

Date published: 5/21/2006

IAPPLAUD SODA MAKERS' new national plan to take sugary drinks out of school vending machines, and I wish it went further.

The program is optional, still allows sales of candy and fatty snacks, and lets companies advertise to our kids all day long at school. I hope that school districts will go further to protect American children from advertising, and to offer fruits and vegetables in vending machines.

Don't get me wrong. Although I'm a dietitian, I'm not a nutrition Nazi. I eat chocolate every day, and my parents nicknamed me "Cookie Monster" when I was a kid. My concern is that we are peddling branded drinks and snacks, not fruits and vegetables.

Schoolchildren are a captive audience to the advertising displays on school vending machines. We have a responsibility to protect children while at school. If parents want to serve candy or chips at home, I think that is normal and fine. Parents can see if the kids are overdoing it and can offer a balanced variety of foods.

The new guidelines for school vending machines, aimed at curbing rampant childhood obesity, came from teamwork of the American Heart Association, the William J. Clinton Foundation and soda makers.

The guidelines suggest selling only water, juice and flavored milk, in 8- to 10-ounce containers, during elementary and middle school hours. In high schools, machines would sell 12-ounce containers of those drinks plus sports drinks, diet sodas, teas, flavored waters and the like, according to the plan released earlier this month. It would be implemented over the next few years.

I think doing away with the massive 20-ounce bottles of soda is terrific. If kids still want soda, they can easily get it elsewhere. But while in school, they have healthier options.

Ideally, though, I wish for something more: taking down the huge, brand-name ads on vending machines and including healthy foods, such as apples, oranges and the like. Soda vendors pay schools big bucks, sometimes more than $1 million a year. I think they want these exclusive contracts because they thirst for the chance to splash the machines' bright, lighted ads in our schools. They want to advertise to our community's children, who are a captive and impressionable audience.

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Date published: 5/21/2006