What, no more sodas at school? Yes, this is the way it is
looking for elementary schools and junior high schools and it could
possibly be in the future for high schools.
What, no more sodas at school? Yes, this is the way it is looking for elementary schools and junior high schools and it could possibly be in the future for high schools.
A new statewide law that will be effective on July 1, 2004, will ban the sale of unhealthy beverages from one-half hour before school and one-half hour after the end of the school day. The reason the legislation is being put into effect is because of the rising concern in child obesity levels.
“The rate of pediatric obesity has increased so alarmingly that everyone is looking for something,” said Lillian Castillo. a nutritionist for the public health department.
The average boy 12 to 29 years old drinks 2.5 sodas a day. Girls of the same age group only drink about 1.7 sodas every day. In 1997, Americans spent $54 million on soda. They drank 14 billion gallons, which is 18 ounces a day for every person in the country for a year. Those numbers are twice the amount they were in 1974, which makes us question: Why are kids drinking so much more soda now?
Kids like soda. If it were being offered to them they would drink it. When they drink it, they don’t think about all the health problems that go along with the amount of soda they are drinking. They aren’t thinking of the health risks like cancer, asthma, tooth decay or becoming addicted to the caffeine in the soda. Teenagers and kids do things more for the here and now; they don’t think long term.
The average soda is about 12 ounces and has about 160 empty calories; but just one cup of one-percent milk has only 102 calories and 300 grams of calcium.
A study was done at Harvard University on ninth- and 10th grade boys who drank soda. The study showed that boys who drank soda were three times more likely to get a bone fracture than those that did not drink soda. This is because if they are drinking soda they are less likely to be drinking milk as often as they should be.
The state will be replacing sodas with water and 100 percent juice. Gatorade sports drink also met the standards, though not all sports drinks do. We will probably be seeing more Gatorade products at the schools as replacement for soda.
Why not include high schools in the legislation? It was considered to include high schools under the legislation but when it was finalized, they were not included. Some big school districts in California like San Francisco and Los Angeles have already banned sodas from their high schools.
“Part of the reason that high schools weren’t included in the legislation is because some feel that high school students are old enough to make their own decisions on if they will drink soda or not,” said Edwin Diaz, Gilroy Unified School District superintendent.
I would like to think that we as teenagers are old enough to make the decisions about the amount of soda to drink, but I don’t think that most of us think about health when we chose our beverage. After researching this topic I realized I didn’t know about the health risks of drinking large amounts of soda. Then I started thinking that if I didn’t know much about it, then most other teenagers probably don’t know much about the health risks of too much soda either.
Schools should educate students on the health risks of soda so that students can make an informed decision and not promote it as much as water, milk or juice. They have already started to do that a little bit at the high school this year.
“Six soda machines have been exchanged for Gatorade machines and the fronts of some soda machines were changed to show bottled water. This should help promote the consumption of water a little bit more,” Diaz said.
There are 20 soda machines at the high school, which means that 30 percent have been changed. I agree with the legislation, I don’t think they should take the soda out of high schools. This gives us more freedom and respect.
