On April 7th this year, Mayor Menino signed a ban on selling or promoting soda on city property and at city sponsored events. The six month phase out period ends early next month. This may seem simplistic at best and draconian at worst but Boston public schools have been soda free since 2004.
The Robert Woods Johnson Foundation released the results of a two year study on Boston high school students indicating that they actually consumed roughly 45 fewer calories per day. For the visual learner among us, this translates to about one kiwi. But seriously, they tracked consumption during and after school hours and found that kids did not go looking for soda to make up for the it's absence at school.
Last year, Massachusetts joined 40 other states in levying a sales tax on soda and candy. With all these measures in place, does this mean that the battle against obesity is as good as won?
Unfortunately, soda isn't the only factor responsible for childhood obesity. It is also less exercise, more TV, less home cooking, more videogames, less healthy snacks and more junk food. But soda counts for about 10% of total calories consumed in the US diet and if childhood obesity is not countered, today's youth maybe the first generation to live shorter lives than their parents.
No comments:
Post a Comment