The healthnik busybodies have pressured distributors to stop selling sugary drinks to schools.
The nation’s largest beverage distributors have agreed to halt nearly all soda sales to public schools, according to a deal announced Wednesday by the William J. Clinton Foundation. Under the agreement, the companies have agreed to sell only water, unsweetened juice and low-fat milks to elementary and middle schools, said Jay Carson, a spokesman for former President Bill Clinton. Diet sodas would be sold only to high schools.
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The deal follows a wave of regulation by school districts and state legislatures to cut back on student consumption of soda amid reports of rising childhood obesity rates. Soda has been a particular target of those fighting obesity because of its caloric content and popularity among children.
I don’t recall having soda machines available when I was in school but, certainly, sodas were available. Whole milk, known then as “milk,” was routinely included with school lunches. Most of us were well within healthy weight parameters.
The reason our kids are so fat is not that they drink too many soft drinks. A can of Coca-Cola has 140 calories and its leading competitor 150. Unless the kid is having ten of those a day, that’s negligible. The lack of exercise and poor dietary choices are almost certainly the reason for the explosion in childhood obesity.
Ironically, the industry is going to get great press for going along with this deal “for the children” despite this fact:
Under the agreement, high schools will still be able to purchase drinks such as diet and unsweetened teas, diet sodas, sports drinks, flavored water, seltzer and low-calorie sports drinks from distributors. School sales of those kinds of drinks have been on the rise in recent years, while regular soda purchases by students have been falling, according to an ABA report released in December. But regular soda is still the most popular drink among students, accounting for 45 percent of beverages sold in schools in 2005, the report said.
And, by the way, a bottle of Diet Snapple is certainly more profitable than a can of Coke.
