Weaning our schools from a junk food diet

Monday, May 8, 2006

You don't need to be a rocket scientist or a public health expert to know that sodas aren't good for children. They rot teeth, fill up tummy space that nutritious calories could be inhabiting and give kids a caffeine buzz.

The announcement earlier this week that the nation's largest soft drink companies would remove their sodas from school vending machines nationwide thus came as welcome news. It's good to know that our nation's schools will no longer be partners in providing juvenile markets for pop purveyors. For too long, cash-hungry schools have entered into a bargain with the sugar devil, where vendors hook kids on sodas, and school budgets get padded with a portion of the proceeds. Although it also must be noted that the voluntary move soda companies made doesn't include a restraint on sales of other non-nutritious drinks to students, including diet sodas, caffeinated beverages and high-sugar "fruit" drinks with very little fruit in them.

The ban will not affect Maine materially, as this state has had a ban in place on soda, junk food and other non-nutritious beverage sales during school hours to students since last year -- testimony to the progressive posture Maine has long taken on children's health issues, from fighting early pregnancy, tobacco addiction and obesity.

But we're also seeing moves to go beyond the ban, such as one afoot in Augusta, where the school board is considering a policy that would forbid the sale of soda at any school activity. It's a move taken already by other school districts, including School Administrative District 9 in western Maine.

The Cony High School All-Sports Boosters oppose the suggestion, saying such a measure would move beyond a reasonable child health promotion mandate into the realm of the Nanny State, and deny needed funds that the club funnels to health-promoting athletic activities at the school.

According to pediatrician Dr. Dora Anne Mills, head of the state Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the fight against obesity can't end when the last school bell rings. And Mills says that at schools that have banned booster clubs from selling unhealthy foods, those clubs have not seen an appreciable difference in income.

Change is hard; telling a sweaty kid or a rowdy adult sports fan that he can't have his soda is very hard. Telling volunteers who have fed your school programs on the proceeds of junk food that they can't do that any- more is awfully hard, too.

But we have a suggestion for the Augusta school board and any others looking at promoting the health of their communities: Try a ban, for a specified time period of, say, one year. Look at the results, count the dollars, and see whether it's really true that you, your children and your programs can't survive without sugar, caffeine, fat and cholesterol.