Soda Drink Sales In Schools Fizzing Out

Beverage Industry Reports Sharp Reduction in High-Calorie Drinks In School Vending Machines

(AP)  U.S. school vending machines are stocked with fewer high-calorie soft drinks today because some states have banned the sale of sodas on campus and the beverage industry is phasing in healthier drinks, according to an industry report.

The findings being released Monday are in the industry's first report card since agreeing in May 2006 to pull nondiet soft drinks from the vast majority of public and private schools over the next three years.

Nondiet soda accounted for 32 percent of the drinks for sale at schools during the 2006-07 school year; in 2004 it had been 47 percent.

Also, the beverages shipped to schools last year contained about two-fifths total fewer calories than what they did in 2004, the report said.

"Through these guidelines, the beverage industry is cutting calories in schools in a dramatic way across the country," said Susan Neely, president and chief executive officer of the American Beverage Association. The trade group represents the country's nonalcoholic beverage industry, which includes soda, bottled water and fruit drinks.

Health officials long have expressed concern that schools contributed to rising obesity rates because campus vending machines sold high-calorie and high-sugar snacks and drinks.

Margo Wootan, director of nutrition policy at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, said the report card offers some good news.

"It looks like the country has taken a good step forward in addressing soft drinks in schools, but we still have a lot of work to do," she said.

Wootan said about 22 states limit the sale of sugary drinks in some grades. For example, Kentucky's school vending machines are filled with bottled water and dried fruit instead of soda and snack cakes. About a dozen states ban the sale of full-calorie soft drinks in high schools.

Wootan said she believes legislative mandates are more effective than voluntary guidelines. But she said the guidelines have reduced the amount of unhealthy offerings in vending machines.

"It's a part of the mix. I wouldn't put it as the most important contributor," she said. "The soft drink industry deserves a lot of praise for how far they've come in the past five years. They used to fight us every step of the way at the local, state and national level."

Most elementary schools are already soda-free. But under the voluntary guidelines, beverage companies agreed to sell only water, unsweetened juice and low-fat and nonfat milk to elementary and middle schools. Diet sodas and sports drinks will remain in high schools.

The guidelines were brokered by the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, a collaboration between the William J. Clinton Presidential Foundation and the American Heart Association.

It involves industry leaders Cadbury Schweppes PLC, Coca-Cola Co. and PepsiCo Inc. as well as the beverage association, which together control 87 percent of the public and private school drink market.

[michellem99-2009]

In WA State at supermarkets they tax junk food. Pop,candy,etc..SOBE drinks. The gov. she did..put it in place..get pop out of schools.free nation when kids are so fat they can''t walk.so WA had to do something. Parents they need to stop it.

[mitywhity]

It''s a good thing - the drop in sales. It would be sweeter if the drop was due to young people saying No to the Liquid Fat-A$$ in a can! We had the option in high school to forego the pizza and sloppy joes and hit the salad bar. But there were no sodas. You could get sweet tea though.

[michellem99-2009]

It is not a matter of mormon. one foster parent was..Every foster parent was diabates..We had no pop,candy,cake.. There was good food..ganden grown.home made bread.. School milk with lunch. We had a birthday cake on our day of birth..Could afford to eat right. Now it is not. But..pop sweets just wind a child up..Food bank load them up with junk...

[highthis]

People need to understand that we are a free country and we make our own mind to drink or not. We can make a choice to get fat or die really skinny. We have the choice to ourselfs and to our kids, if we rise our kids with good food or bad. They need to make it better for them. Yes we need to start young with healthy food. It''s just a deal with people think we need the tall people look or the skinny look for other country''s think that we are so ***. I look at myself as a healthy person, but make some mistakes of eating stuff. I was rised with junk food, but I made a diffence of myself to get out of it. You make the choice and make it that way. Besides the government makes it for you.

[mythoughtsr]

There is no soda in my home and all of my children have never had a caffeinated beverage and NO we aren''t Mormon. I just raised them not to have it and to drink healthy beverages. There is no soda in my home because as a parent I choose not to allow them junk food and soda. Children live what they learn.

[grammawhamma]

Most teens in my area are addicted to RedBull. I don''t think they sell it in the schools but I bet the kids buy it on the way to school and carry it in.

You can lead a horse to water but you can''t make it drink.