Officials reported that the Chicago Public Schools would remove all soft drinks, candy and other high-calorie snacks from the school vending machines and replace them with nutritious options. Chicago has joined other major schools that have since banned food and drink items that seemed to be linked to the increasing childhood obesity rates in their schools.
School officials stated that it was their responsibility to encourage healthy eating habits particularly because of the many hours students spend at school.
The Chicago District planned to replace their existing beverage contract with Coca-Cola with 100 percent fruit juices in elementary schools and offer the minimum of 50 percent fruit juice in high schools. Some of the other beverages that will be sold include water and non-carbonated sports drinks.
According to statistics, the school system took in around $4 million each year from the vending machines. This would be equivalent to 52 percent of total sales, while the remaining 48 percent went to Coke. The decision to remove unhealthy beverages and drinks from vending machines came at a time when childhood obesity concerns have reached a crisis level.
Schools in New York City and Los Angeles have already banned soft drinks from their schools.
Yahoo! News April 28, 2004
I attended all of my formal education within the Chicago city limits, from kindergarten to post-graduate residency training. Only four years at Lane Tech high school were in the public school system, the rest was in private schools. So, I was very pleased to read that Chicago, the third largest school district in the United States, will ban soft drinks, candy and fat-laden snacks from school vending machines.
Last month Philadelphia became the first to ban them. New York and Los Angeles have also followed suit. More recently a Connecticut school took it the next step and became a completely junk food free school. MAJOR kudos for Nathan Hale School where candy bars are confiscated and bake sales are frowned upon. They are making real progress in the fight on childhood obesity.
This is an exciting trend.
It took a lot of courage for Chicago to do this, as they will lose $4 million a year on profits from the drinks. So why do we want to ban this crazy practice?
One out of every four drinks consumed is a soft drink.
Our annual consumption here in the United States averages out to more than 56 gallons for every man, woman and child.
Consumers spend more than $60 BILLION a year on soda.
The soft drink industry uses more than 12 billion gallons of water every year.
The average girl has one ounce of pure sugar and a boy two ounces of pure sugar every day from sodas. That is nearly 50 pounds of sugar every year from soda.
Do you really want the above nonsense to continue?
Let's stop the trend.
Be encouraged that YOU can make a difference. Be an activist.
Contact your school officials and let them know you will NOT tolerate this insanity anymore. Philadelphia, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago did it; surely your town can join them.
Let's get this revolution going. Our kids are depending on us!
Just don't make the mistake that Chicago and New York made and replace those soft drinks with non-carbonated sports drinks and fruit drinks, which are virtually identical in every damaging way to soda.
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