Editor's note: In May 2006 the nation's largest beverage distributors agreed to halt almost all sales of sodas to US public schools. In the near future, only diet sodas will be sold to high schools. These changes are set to be implemented by the 2009-2010 school year. Perhaps signaling this shift in public policy, the American Dietetic Association no longer offers its fact sheet on soda on its Web site.

January 22, 2002 | Soda addiction has hit our nation's schools. Every day, kids line up at vending machines, buy their 20-ounce bottles of sugar and carbonated water, and go off to study important subjects like history, math, and, yes, nutrition. Kids love soda, but they aren't the only ones who are hooked. With few exceptions, it's the schools that can't give up the stuff. Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and other beverage companies have a multimillion-dollar grip on the country's public schools. In exchange for installing soda machines on campus, schools can reap huge amounts of money for athletic, music, and other programs they claim they couldn't continue without the soda companies' largesse.

Sixty percent of all American middle schools and high schools sell soft drinks in vending machines, according to the November 6, 2002 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. An estimated 240 school districts have gone so far as to sign exclusive contracts with beverage companies to install vending machines in their schools, and put their corporate logos on scoreboards and book covers. In return, the schools get cash -- sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, or more. A recent survey by the California-based Public Health Institute found that some districts rake in "signing bonuses" of more than one million dollars.

At a time when school districts everywhere are strapped for cash, that kind of money can be nearly impossible to resist. It buys band uniforms, football helmets, computers, and new books for the library. The companies, in turn, get a chance to build brand loyalty among young customers.

Consider the ingredients in that 20-ounce bottle of cola: Carbonated water, natural and artificial flavors, a little caffeine, and about 17 teaspoons of sugar, which together add up to 250 calories. All of those empty calories put schools in a dilemma: They may not want to give their students a sugar fix, but they don't want to walk away from piles of cash either.

Now that 240 school districts have signed on with beverage companies, many administrators clearly feel that the benefits of soda contracts outweigh the risks. According to Amanda Purcell, M.P.H., a researcher with the Public Health Institute, the basic argument goes something like this: A soda here and there won't hurt anyone, kids will drink plenty of soda no matter what the schools do, and schools need the money. "Of course," Purcell says, "that argument was a lot easier to make when we were weren't faced with this raging obesity epidemic."

At a time when 17.4 percent of children aged 12 to 19 are overweight, soda no longer seems quite so harmless. Nobody believes that soft drinks are the only cause of obesity among young people, but sugary drinks can definitely help pile on the pounds, says Melinda Sothern, Ph.D., an exercise physiologist and childhood obesity specialist from Louisiana State University. (Sothern is the co-author of Trim Kids, a weight-loss guide for overweight children and their parents.)

Sothern has found that many of the severely obese kids who visit her weight-loss clinic "drink their calories." One 9-year-old girl who weighed over 300 pounds recently came to the clinic accompanied by her perplexed mother. The mom couldn't understand why her daughter was so large -- after all, she didn't eat much. When questioned by the staff, the girl said she drank four or five 20-ounce sodas a day. That's about 1,000 to 1,250 calories a day. Another mystery solved.

Of course, few children can stomach 100 ounces of soda each day, and even fewer top 300 pounds. But plenty of kids manage to drink plenty of soda. According to a report in the February 17, 2001 issue of The Lancet, soft drink consumption among adolescent boys rose 65 percent between 1991 and 1995. By the latest estimate, two-thirds of all girls and three-fourths of all boys have at least one soft drink each day.

In the not too distant past, soda was an occasional treat, something kids had when they went out for pizza with friends, says Margo Wootan, Ph.D., director of nutrition policy for the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Somewhere along the line, it became a daily indulgence. "I don't recommend that parents never give their kids soda. But it's not an everyday food," she says. "Having it sold in schools makes it seem like it's a part of everyday life."

Now there's strong evidence that many of those liquid calories turn to fat. In a study that was the first of its kind, Harvard researchers tracked both the weights and the soft drink consumption of 548 grade school children for two years. As reported in the February 17, 2001 issue of The Lancet, each daily serving of a sugary drink appears to raise the risk of obesity by 60 percent.

The Lancet study sounded alarm bells among nutrition experts and sparked an avalanche of news reports. It also spurred the proponents of soft drinks to action. The National Soft Drink Association, the Center for Consumer Freedom, and similar trade groups started campaigns to restore soda's image.

Even the American Dietetic Association published a fact sheet in 2001 -- "Straight Facts About Beverage Choices" -- that casts soft drinks in an essentially positive light. About 75 percent of the text was devoted to dispelling concerns about soda, such as possible links to weight gain, cavities, and bone-thinning among children and teens.

Why would the ADA take the side of soft drinks? Are our nation's nutritionists worried that kids aren't getting enough sugar? Hardly. "A lot of members at the ADA were upset about that fact sheet," Wootan says. The fine print tells the real story: "Straight Facts About Beverage Choices" was sponsored by the National Soft Drink Association.

Once again, money talks. Just as schools take cash from Coke and Pepsi to keep their library shelves stocked, "organizations need money to put out educational materials," says JoAnn Hattner, R.D., a nutritionist with Stanford University and a spokesperson for the ADA. "In all honesty, it's hard to find anything good to say about soda except that it tastes good."

It turns out that the soft drink association paid the ADA $25,000 for the soda "fact sheet," which appeared as an advertisement in the back of the ADA's magazine, the Journal of the American Dietetic Association. The industry-sponsored fact sheet was also posted on the soft drink association's Web site, under the ADA's banner, leaving the impression that the dietetic association endorses soda consumption.

The sheet downplayed soda's role in obesity and Type 2 diabetes and implied that soda provides good hydration. Although soda contains phosphorous, which may undermine calcium in the bones, the fact sheet pointed out that phosphorous is also found in milk and beef. While it encourages moderate consumption, the fact sheet placed soda squarely into a healthy diet. "Regular carbonated soft drinks contain calories; milk and juice contain calories, vitamins and minerals -- all beverages can have a place in a well-balanced eating pattern."

The soft drink association had gone so far as to reference the ADA fact sheet in a press release claiming that soda has been "demonized" by consumer advocates -- without noting that industry money paid for the information. Instead, it referred to its own advertisement as the ADA's "official Nutrition Fact Sheet" on soda.

For its part, the dietetic association maintains it has a strict editorial policy free of industry influence. "The ADA works with industry and other sponsors to produce and fund the distribution of nutrition fact sheets," ADA guidelines say. "ADA retains total editorial control of the fact sheet content." In fact, the sheet was in conflict with the ADA's own position on soda. A 1999 article published in the ADA's magazine concluded: "Nutrition education messages targeted to children and/or their parents should encourage limited consumption of soft drinks. Policies that limit children's access to soft drinks at day care centers and schools should be promoted."

But money can't always buy cooperation. In 2002, several school districts -- most notably the country's largest, the Los Angeles Unified School District -- decided to ban soft drinks from schools. Beginning in 2004, vending machines in the district's public high schools and middle schools offered only water, milk, fruit juice, and low-sugar sports drinks. Many nutrition experts applaud the move. "Why is everyone so convinced that the only way to make money is to sell junk food to kids?" Wootan asks. "Sometimes you need to shake things up and try something new."

It remains to be seen how much the ban will cost. In the best-case scenario, beverage companies will still offer lucrative contracts to sell their particular brands of healthy drinks, and kids will spend just as much money on juice, water, and milk as they used to spend on sodas. The school districts "are gambling that they won't lose much money, and they're probably right," Purcell says.

At some point, every school district has to take a good look at its priorities, says Karen Cullen, a pediatrician and nutritionist with Baylor College of Medicine. "It all comes down to how you perceive a school -- is it a healthy environment or not?" Parents, teachers, and others who care about children should take a close look at what's happening at their local schools, she says. When concerned citizens speak loudly enough, they can wield more influence than soda companies can ever hope to buy.

Parents who want to take a stand against soda should start at home, Sothern says. They shouldn't try to ban soda outright, but they should set limits. One 12-ounce can of soda each day should be the absolute maximum, she says, and children with weight problems should have even less. Gradually, over time, parents can substitute healthier drinks so that soda again recedes to its earlier status as an occasional treat.

Fortunately, even the most dedicated soda drinkers can be persuaded to cut back, Sothern says. In fact, she's found that it's often the simplest way for overweight kids to slim down. The 300-pound girl lost nine pounds in several weeks simply by switching from soda to water and milk.

Even a small change can make a difference, according to recent research. A study of 650 English schoolchildren reported in the April 23, 2004 British Medical Journal found that obesity decreased by .2 percent among children who cut their soda intake by just half a glass per day. A control group of children who slightly increased their daily soda consumption experienced a 7.6 increase in obesity.

Kids can kick the soda habit. Whether schools have the same willpower remains to be seen.

-- Chris Woolston, M.S., is a health and medical writer with a master's degree in biology. He is a contributing editor at Consumer Health Interactive, and was the staff writer at Hippocrates, a magazine for physicians. He has also covered science issues for Time Inc. Health, WebMD, and the Chronicle of Higher Education.

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First published January 22, 2003
Last updated July 23, 2007
Copyright © 2003 Consumer Health Interactive