The American Beverage Association recommended that soda and other sweetened beverages be pulled from vending machines at elementary schools across the United States, saying the industry needs to help fight the increasing rate of childhood obesity.
ABA president and CEO Susan Neely was to announce the organisation’s new policy recommendation on Wednesday at the annual meeting of the National Conference of State Legislatures in Seattle.
”Childhood obesity is a real problem,” said Neely on Tuesday.
”The individual companies have been doing several things to be part of the solution and there was an agreement among all of our leadership that we needed to take another step and take it as an industry.”
Neely argues soft drinks aren’t inherently bad, and are fine for physically active children who eat a balanced diet. But she wants parents to have the assurance that their children aren’t drinking an excessive amount of sweetened drinks at school.
The association’s board voted unanimously on Tuesday to work with school districts to ensure that vending machines stock only bottled water and 100% juice in elementary schools.
Under the group’s recommendation, middle school students would have access to additional drinks, like sports drinks, no-calorie soft drinks and low-calorie juice drinks. Middle schools could have additional machines with soft drinks and full-calorie juice drinks available for organisations that may hold meetings at the school, but the beverages couldn’t be available during school hours.
High school students would have access to all types of drinks, including soda, but no more than 50% of the vending machine selections would be soft drinks.
The association’s recommendation isn’t binding, but Neely said the 20-member board represents 85% of the bottlers involved in school vending. She also noted that the trend over the last couple of years was for school districts to move away from soft drinks in schools.
”The focus of the policy is on what the industry thinks makes sense as far as addressing childhood obesity and responding to what parents want for their children in schools,” she said.
An estimated nine million American schoolchildren between the ages of six and 19 nationwide are overweight, according to the federal Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. Since 1980, the number of overweight children has doubled, and the number of overweight adolescents has tripled, according to the CDC.
School districts around the country have responded to the problem, with many starting to get rid of soda and candy in vending machines and replacing them with healthier items.
Several states have considered or enacted laws establishing nutrition standards in schools, including whether students should have access to vending machine soft drinks.
Of the 38 states that considered legislation this year dealing with school nutrition, 15 enacted legislation that addressed the issue in some way, said Amy Winterfeld, a health policy analyst with the state legislatures group.
North Carolina this year passed a measure similar to the ABA’s recommendation. That law extends the soda pop ban currently in place in elementary schools to machines in middle schools. No more than half of the beverages offered to students in high schools from vending machines can be sugared soft drinks. Bottled water also must be offered. Diet soft drinks still can be sold in middle
schools.
Some states have included vending machine restrictions as part of a larger nutritional guideline, Winterfeld said.
”This has definitely been a watershed year for this type of legislation,” she said. ”Long-term, people are concerned about the medical costs of treating obesity-related conditions. And short-term, I think there’s been more public awareness that obesity really is a public health issue.” – Sapa-AP