by Heidi Green
September 06, 2008

There’s no doubt that the problem of childhood obesity is a multifaceted one. Given that children spend a great deal of time at school, that seems like one possible place to find a solution.

Recently, researchers from California analyzed data relevant to one piece of the puzzle: soft drinks in the schools. Meenakshi M. Fernandes, MPhil sought to quantify the association among three factors: the availability of soft drinks at school; students’ purchase of soft drinks at school; and students’ overall soft drink consumption.

Readers should note that the term “soft drinks” here is not limited to soda (or “pop,” as we in my area of the country like to call it). Rather, study questions asked about “soda pop, sports drinks, or fruit drinks that are not 100 percent juice” collectively. Also, this study looked only at elementary schools.

Research
Researchers analyzed data from a particular cohort of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study. Data were available for 10,215 children in fifth grade at 2,303 schools in 40 states. Their responses to the Child Food Consumption Questionnaire were collected during the 2003–2004 school year, before any states regulated soft drink availability in the schools (as the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended) and before the American Beverage Association’s own restrictions went into effect.

Questions included:

• During the last week that you were in school, how many times did you buy soda pop, sports drinks, or fruit drinks that are not 100 percent juice?

• During the past seven days, how many times did you drink soda pop, sports drinks, or fruit drinks that are not 100 percent juice?

• Can students purchase, either from vending machines, school store, canteen, snack bar, or a la carte items from cafeteria during school hours, soda pop, sports drinks, or fruit drinks that are not 100 percent juice? (School administrators were also asked this question.)

Results
A taste of the study’s findings:

• Soft drinks were available at almost 40 percent of elementary schools (879 of 2,303) in 2004.
• The majority of schools (771 of 879) made the drinks available through vending machines.
• Regionally, schools in the west were less likely to make soft drinks available (16 percent versus 39 percent).
• Children consumed an average of 2.4 soft drinks per school week.
• No relationship was found between consumption at school and overall consumption.
• Overweight children were no more likely to purchase soft drinks.

Recommendations
Contrary to what you might expect (soft drinks seeming to be an obvious culprit), the study findings seem to suggest that eliminating soft drinks from elementary schools will not substantially reduce childhood obesity.

However, I do wonder how accurate our conclusions from this study can be. First, I would have liked “soda pop,” “sports drink,” and “fruit drinks not made from 100 percent juice” to have been assessed in separate questions. (About this last, I am not sure how many fifth-graders pay attention to the percentage of juice in their fruity drinks.) Second, this study misses soft drinks that might be consumed at school by students for whom snacks with beverages are provided by classroom parents. Third, this study misses soft drinks consumed at schools by brown-bag students who bring their lunchtime beverages from home, even though “healthy lunchbox” nutrition counseling could help parents make better selections.

All of that aside, let’s look again at the primary conclusion: eliminating soft drinks won’t reduce childhood obesity. Does that mean soft drinks at school are okay? Does that mean we shouldn’t restrict them?

In my opinion, no. The presence of soft drinks on school premises makes them seem like fine choices, setting them on equal footing with milk, water, and 100 percent juice. They’re not. If our schools are to teach children about nutrition, they should do so not only during blackboard lessons, but in those teachable lunchroom and vending machine moments, too. This should be just one small element of a broader-based effort to create a culture of health—and address childhood obesity—in the schools.