Scapegoating soft drinks
A LITTLE-NOTICED news item got my attention a few months ago. According to the Andover Townsman, scores from an annual national physical fitness test showed an ''appalling" decline among elementary school students. More than 100 additional Andover youngsters scored below the national average this year than when the test was last administered during the 2002-03 school year. More ominously, the number of students who fell into the 25th percentile -- the borderline obese category -- had tripled in the last two years.
My guess is that school systems throughout the Commonwealth would report similar results, and the first -- admittedly self-interested -- thing I wanted to know was whether carbonated soft drinks are available in those schools. Knowing that several bills are now pending in the Legislature that I feel unfairly blame my industry for the rising obesity rates among adolescents, I contacted the Andover schools and asked about soda in vending machines.
Guess what? There are no vending machines in the Andover elementary schools, as best as I could tell, except for a few in the teachers' lounges. So what happened in Andover to cause those plunging fitness scores? It turns out that the 2002-03 school year was the last one in which at least 90 minutes of physical education per week was required.
The reduction in Andover's phys-ed programs was the result of financial cutbacks. Yet even in the face of evidence like the Andover experience, you don't hear many political leaders and editorialists championing new funding for physical education programs.
Instead, they talk about banning soda from school vending machines -- somehow believing that the one can of soda per week the average high school student consumes is a bigger contributor to obesity rates than no phys-ed classes.
The beverage industry has become the latest scapegoat in the hunt for someone to blame for America's weight problem, and it's wrongheaded. Prohibiting the sale of soda in schools will do no good and will also remove much-needed revenue that some schools use to augment the sports, music, and phys-ed programs that have been cut.
Just consider a few facts about schools and soft drinks, which many people don't realize is already a restricted product. For example:
Federally funded school lunch programs prohibit the sale of carbonated soft drinks in food service areas during lunch times.
Schools, not the beverage companies, determine the product mix in vending machines. The choice and control resides at the local level, as it should.
Massachusetts beverage companies do not sell carbonated soft drinks to elementary schools.
I won't take issue here with studies from scientific sources that conclude there is a correlation between soft drink consumption and obesity, so long as you don't quibble with the studies indicating that juice, milk, sports drinks, and TV are the real culprits. The point is, science and the study of diet and nutrition is an evolving process. A study this year that said obesity kills nearly a half-million people a year was later corrected when it was found the figure was off by nearly 95 percent, and it added that slightly overweight people live longer than those of normal weight. What are we to make of all the conflicting data? Could it be we're being fed science with an agenda?
There's only one thing certain at the moment: Obesity is the result of many factors, including genetics, physical activity, lifestyle, and diet. Simply, it is a case of calories in versus calories expended. Targeting one food, one beverage, or one industry as the cause for what ails us makes no sense.
My problems with the bills to ban soda in public schools don't have anything to do with science or physiology. I have a more fundamental complaint: They are bad laws that won't work. Even with the plethora of scientific studies, none are suggesting that the small amount of soda being bought from school vending machines has anything to do with rising obesity rates.
Furthermore, there's just something wrong with laws that promote the sale of chocolate milk in schools but ban sparkling water. This is reasonable lawmaking?
Beverage companies provide a wide variety of choices in schools in direct response to school district needs, including water, 100 percent juices, sports drinks, and low- or no-calorie beverages. The industry also encourages schools to implement beverage programs that support healthy lifestyles through nutrition education and physical activity programs.
Maybe some parents and legislators think they're striking a blow against childhood obesity by banning bake sales and the occasional ginger ale. They're fooling themselves.
Chris Crowley, executive vice president for Polar Beverages in Worcester, is chairman of the Southborough Recreation Commission.
