GILROY
– Schools should ban soda and some other sugary soft drinks to
help address the nation’s obesity epidemic, the American Academy of
Pediatrics said in a statement released Monday.
GILROY – Schools should ban soda and some other sugary soft drinks to help address the nation’s obesity epidemic, the American Academy of Pediatrics said in a statement released Monday.
In a new policy statement, the academy also says doctors should contact superintendents and school board members and “emphasize the notion that every school in every district shares a responsibility for the nutritional health of its students.”
Officials at Gilroy Unified School District are already preparing for a soda ban at some schools thanks to a California law passed last fall that prohibits soda sales at elementary schools and restricts sales at junior highs and middle schools.
GUSD has a long-standing policy that sodas are not sold at elementary schools. At South Valley, Brownell Academy and Ascencion Solorsano middle schools, sodas are sold in snack bars and vending machines.
Sodexho, the district’s food service provider, is currently looking for alternative non-carbonated drinks to sell at the middle school snack bars during school hours.
“There’s juices that can be sold, power drinks such as Gatorade can be sold, water …” said Dan Valles, food service consultant for GUSD.
Middle schools will still be allowed to sell sodas before and after school and during special events.
Although the new law took effect Jan. 1, the ban won’t be enforced until next school year, starting July 1, Valles said.
The middle schools’ vending machines are not provided through the district’s food services. Rather, they are used by organizations such as parent clubs to raise funds for student activities. The organizations may choose either to put alternative beverages in those machines or to simply turn them off during school hours, Valles said.
The pediatricians’ new policy, published in the January issue of Pediatrics, says schools should avoid vending machine contracts with soda companies, and that those with existing contracts should impose restrictions to avoid promoting overconsumption by kids.
“The purpose of the statement is to give parents and superintendents and school board members and teachers, too, an awareness of the fact that they’re playing a role in the current obesity crisis, and that they have measures at their disposal” to address it, said Dr. Robert D. Murray, the policy’s lead author.
About 15 percent of U.S. citizens aged 6 to 19 are seriously overweight. That is nearly 9 million youths and triple the number in a similar assessment from 1980.
Soft drinks are a common source of excess calories that can contribute to weight gain, and soft drink consumers at all ages have a higher daily calorie intake than nonconsumers, the academy’s policy said. It cites data showing that 56 percent to 85 percent of school-age children consume at least one soft drink daily, most often sugared rather than diet sodas.
The National Soft Drink Association, which represents most soft drink makers nationwide, said the new policy is misguided and goes too far.
“Soft drinks can be a part of a balanced lifestyle and are a nice treat,” a spokesman said.
The doctors’ recommendation was released a day before a new study found that more American teenagers are obese than those in 14 other industrialized countries, including France and Germany.
The Associated Press Contributed to this report.
