Sweet drinks are kids' top choice at school

by Nicole Weston, Posted Oct 15th 2006 @ 5:04PM

A recently completely study conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health provided another piece of ammunition in the ongoing battle to get sodas out of schools. After observing kids at 10 middle schools, it was found that 71% buy "sugar-sweetened beverages from school vending machines." Water was the second most popular drink, but soda sales tripled its numbers.

Perhaps the conclusion of the study was that access to soda was too easy and that this is another reasons schools should make them less available, but the study did not compare soda purchases from, say, a machine stocked with non-sweetened drinks. Even though there was water in the machines, if you have even looked at a soda machine on a school campus, you'll notice that water is only one of the 8 or so options, if it is there at all. Yes, students are buying too much soda if the middle school students from the study are drinking it down on a daily basis, but the kids want to buy something and an alternative should be provided - otherwise they'll just wait until school is out and head across the street to buy a soda from the nearest fast food joint or convenience store.

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Filed Under: Science, Cooking With Kids, Trends, Health & Medical, Drink Recipes
Tags: beverage, forbes, harvard, juice, soda, sodas, soft drinks, study, sugar