"Responding to concern about poor diets and increasingly fat children, Coca-Cola Co. and PepsiCo Inc. will stock cafeterias and vending machines with water and fruit juice, rather than with high-calorie carbonated drinks, a group representing both companies said. "
So if they are doing this in Canada, why not the U.S.?
Should elementary schools allow Coke and Pepsi to be sold there?
How many schools allow it now? When I was in school (in the 90s) there were juice machines in the cafe, and the only soda machine in the entire high school was set on a timer not to come on except during after school events. I don’t think my school was very unusual.
How does the sugar-water ratio in bottled ‘juices’ compare with that in soda pop?
signed, Cynic
Yes. Remove the unhealthy soft drinks from our schools. That’s my vote.
Sugar/Schmugar.
Most popular pops contain a freaking central nervous system stimulant, added specifically for it’s pharmacological effect.
Drinks containing both caffeine and nicotine are sold to students out of vending machines in Japan, and marketed as study aids.
That probably wouldn’t fly, here, and yet nobody gives caffeinated kids a second thought. What’s the difference, exactly?
Unless the school is in the middle of the Tundra, my guess is there are ample opportunities to buy any multitude of sinful things on the way to and from school.
Actually, the same news report was on the local Las Vegas television station and they said it wasn’t a big deal here…the most popular drinks sold from the machines?
Sounds to me like kids are smart enough to know what is good for them. Banning one more thing from high schools isn’t going to change anything.
Skip the “juice-like” shit too - it’s dyed, flavored, sweetened water, with just enough fruit juice to allow them to allude to it on the label. Not that fruit juice is all that great for you either - it’s also enormously sugary, and a lot of the nutrition is removed by the processing and shipping.
I’m rather irritated that juice is still being pushed as a wonderful, healthy food - a lot of kinds are only marginally less sugary than pop, if at all, and the vitamins you get from it are minimal. It’s not that much better that soda.
My vote? First start by telling the kids that the juice isn’t any better. Remove it all; provide easy access to drinking fountains and encourage students to carry water bottles. Problem solved.
I don’t think that soda should be sold to kids during the school day. In the way back machine (70’s) soda was only sold after school. I think this is a good compromise.
I didn’t let my kids drink pop at meals at home and didn’t appreciate that they could buy it at school for lunch. I didn’t make a big deal about it because they (kids) said they never bought it (hehehe stupid mom).
Then again when I was in HS I could either buy a full hot lunch or buy a milk shake for lunch and pocket the diff. Guess how many chocolate shakes vs hot lunches Dejahma bought?
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&postid=3089879#post3089879
It’s obviously a conspiracy by the juice companies. 
I don’t know about the school lunch program in Canada, but in my experience Washington state schools (I graduated HS last year), the 110 Calories in a Mountain Dew are small change compared to the lunch kids are eating.
Back when I was in high school (not too long ago - in fact, I graduated last May), I rarely witnessed people buying soda out of the machines provided. Most filled their own water bottles from the fountains or bought lemon-tinged Snapple tea out of the machines that dispensed it. The soda machines were rendered inactive by timers during school, so you could only buy them before or after the first and final bells rang anyway. So, not only did the school limit the purchase of said tooth-rotting beverages, but the students often ignored their presence anyway. However, I saw the machines primarily as a form of profit gain, so if you were going to have them in the school and then limit their use to the early morning and the late afternoon, I don’t see the point in having them at all.
Then again, this is one point of view from one kid in one school. I’m not sure how it pans out elsewhere.
I would prefer soft drinks were taken out of schools, and that all the food served in school was completely overhauled. The schools are put in a bit of a tough position though, because the soda companies come in offering money.
At my high school (end of the 90’s) there were a ton of soda machines. Pepsi had the contract for our school, and in addition to the soda cans, they also put FritoLay products (Doritos, Cheetos, Fritos) in cans into the machines. Eventually a machine that sold (larger) bottles was also put in the school.
There were also vending machines with nothing but crap. The cafeteria wasn’t much better. There were sandwiches and fruit available, and a then some hot food of whatever the school decided, but there was also a line that only served a basket of pizza and fries. The lunch period was only 30-35 minutes long, so if there was a long line you didn’t have much time left to eat. It was a huge mess, I don’t know who was responsible, but if/when I have kids I’ll be packing their lunch if they have the same “options” I did.
I didn’t even bother with lunch my last two years. A lot of the time people would spend 1 on lunch by getting a soda and a candy bar (saved .75 or something like that).
When I was in school, ( graduated in '95 ) we were not allowed to use the vending machines before 2:00pm. We had a Pepsi machine, a Coke machine and a vending machine that only despensed juice, as well as a candy bar vending machine. I bet I spent less than $10.00 the whole time I had access to them. ( from 7th grade til 12th grade )
My school sells sodas, Snapples, and water. I’d like to see that changed to 100% juices and water. Kids don’t need more caffeine and high fructose corn syrup than they’re already getting at home. At least 100% juice has vitamins and can be considered as a serving of fruit.
Bah. School is tough enough on the kids- if having a soft drink makes it more tolerable, let them have it. If the parents do their jobs and give them good nutrition at home, then a can of pop at school isn’t going to be a big deal.
What I object to is sole-source contracts schools have with soft drink makers. Our school has a Pepsi contract so there are no Coke machines allowed. What we teach our kids is that freedom of choice is a commmodity to be bought and sold.
wow, my high school (graduated in 1990) had 16 minute lunches.
The lunch line served crap like PB & J with chips, hot dogs, pizza and one entree that changed daily.
ALa Carte had soda, cookies, chips, ice cream …
When my brother went through they had added taco bell.
There were no healthy choices … I’d love to see the food improved!
No. Soda may be unhealthy but no one has become obese from eating a perfectly healthy diet and drinking too much soda. How about providing kids with something better than what’s currently on the lunch menu? None of that junk ever looked decent. If that’s not enough, get rid of vending machines with chips and other unhealthy snacks.
Milk is pretty high in calories too, btw. Especially if it isn’t skim.
I must be old. When I was at high school in the 1970s, there were no soda machines in the school at all. At lunch, the cafeteria sold milk and juice to go with whatever meal they had for lunch. Nothing except water from the drinking fountains was available at any other time.
Now it’s true that if we wanted a can of pop or something other than what the caf was offering for lunch, we’d head off to the nearby store or fast food joint and get it. But I don’t recall any soft drinks or snacks being available from any source inside the school.
I don’t know if the question should be, “Should we remove soda machines from schools?” Perhaps it should really be, “Why did we allow them in the first place?”
(Yes, I know about contracts and dollars and monetary benefits and such. But if we managed very well without them in my day, why did things change?)
The proposal in Canada doesn’t even address high schools. Just elementary and middle schools.