Soda Banned from Schools

Move is a good step in fighting child obesity

Thank goodness a deal has been worked to get most of the soft drinks out of schools. With all the discussion of the obesity of American children, what took so long?

The move alone won't result in all kids being at a healthy weight, but it's a great first step.

The nation's top three bottlers have agreed to remove most soft drinks out of schools over the next three years. Former President Clinton brokered the agreement through the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, a collaboration between the William J. Clinton Foundation and the American Heart Association. The nation's three biggest soft-drink companies, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo Inc. and Cadbury Schweppes, accepted the terms.

Soft drinks - only diet - will be sold in high schools only. Beverages of all types must be limited to 8 ounces in elementary schools, 10 ounces in middle schools and 12 in high schools. Except for milk and fruit juice, no beverage having more than 100 calories can be sold.

The standards are to be in place in 75 percent of schools by the summer of 2008 and all by 2009.

Bottlers didn't agree to the deal out of the goodness of their hearts. Rather, it was the fear of lawsuits. The Center for Science in the Public Interest, an advocacy group, already had threatened to sue to stop the sales. Also, some states had already banned soft drinks from schools, and other states were considering that move.

Health experts estimate that 9 million U.S. children older than 6 are obese. The rate of obesity has increased dramatically in the past 25-30 years, almost tripling for children ages 6 to 11 and doubling for preschoolers and teens.

Soft drinks are the leading source of added sugars in the diet of youngsters, researchers say. They are loaded with calories but aren't as filling and don't provide the nutrition of real food.

Schools will have to renegotiate contracts with the beverage companies to refill machines with more healthful choices. We hope local schools do that as quickly as possible.

Most kids still will get plenty of the high-calorie drinks elsewhere, but at least they won't be spending their milk money on them.

Certainly sweetened soft drinks are only one cause of the obesity problem among children. Now it's time to turn attention to the snack vending machines and the fries served in the cafeteria.