New
beverage company guidelines misleading
Austin
Lewis
Last
week, the American Beverage Association
(ABA) announced new guidelines intending
to control the kinds of drinks students
would be able to purchase from vending
machines on school grounds.
The guidelines encourage elementary schools to only sell bottled water and
products with only 100 percent juice. Middle schools are encouraged to sell
the same products, as well as sports drinks, soft drinks with no calories and
juice drinks with low calories.
Full-calorie drinks would not be sold at middle schools until after hours.
High schools are encouraged to sell all of these drinks to students, with one
restriction: no more than half of all drinks offered can be soft drinks.
According to the ABA’s Web site, ameribev.org, the group believes child
obesity is a problem in society that can be addressed by encouraging children
to eat a balanced diet and exercise on a regular basis.
Furthermore, the group said the purpose of these new beverage guidelines is
to “promote healthy lifestyles for children” by providing “beverage
choices that are tailored by grade level.” That all seems well and good,
but will the guidelines be effective?
Better ye t— can they be effective? After all, they are only guidelines,
not laws, and there is no punishment for ignoring them.
If younger children want to drink soda, they’ll find ways to drink it — even
if they have to bring soda from home. Also, the suggestion that soft drinks
should make up no more than half of the vending selections at high schools
means absolutely nothing.
All soft drink companies really have to do is increase the total number of
vending machines at high schools and they’ll still be able to meet students’ demand
for soft drinks.
Many schools have exclusive contracts with beverage companies, so the ABA’s
new guidelines are really doing nothing more than helping them sell a wider
variety of products. This is even true at Cal State Long Beach. You can’t
buy Gatorade here, but you can buy Coca-Cola-owned Powerade. You can walk into
a Taco Bell or Subway nationwide and buy a Pepsi or Mountain Dew, but if you
go to the locations on campus you have to drink a Coca-Cola product.
If the ABA is as concerned about child obesity as it claims, it would do more
than it has here. The juices and sports drinks the ABA is encouraging schools
to sell to students can contain as much sugar as some soft drinks, so a change
from one to another wouldn’t do much for children’s health.
The ABA even points out on its Web site that “numerous scientific studies
have found no association between increased soft drink consumption and obesity.”
The only thing the ABA seems to be truly concerned about is money. Their new
guidelines don’t help fight obesity, but they do help beverage companies
make a few bucks.
Austin Lewis is a fifth-year journalism major and the managing editor of
the Daily Forty-Niner. |
