Anyone notice subtle change about soda in schools?

[Festivito]

At first there would be no soda in elementary schools. Fine.
In High Schools there would be choices including good drinks and diet soda. (Not discluding non-diet, just that diet would be there.)

NOW:
There will be no sugar soda. All diet. All chemical soda.

Not what was said earlier.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2260969

Sounds like they've promised close to nothing. But, the CNN hourly updates are making no sugar soda a pound into the mind kind of reporting.

P.S. I hate artificial sweeteners. I want High Schoolers to have a choice.

[Goblinmonger]

1. Part of NCLB

is that schools need to have a wellness policy in place. Our school is finalizing ours right now. This will mean that most schools will not allow any form of treats for birthdays, donuts for homeroom (my homeroom kids will be crushed), anything of that type in addition to the school lunches and vending machines.

[susanna]

9. IMHO, that is straight up ridiculous.

"Treats" are not the problem...using nutritionless, nasty, mostly sweet foods AS MEALS is. I'm just saying.

[Chipper Chat]

2. They'll have to pry my can of Cherry-Vanilla Dr. Pepper

... from my cold, dead hands!

[babylonsister]

3. Notice it? Apparently Clinton is inspiring it. I don't drink soda, so

it's okay by me.

[TheDonkey]

4. I don't drink soda, but HS students should decide for themselves

I think if they can drive high speed vehicles they are able to decide whether soda is good or bad for them.

[Festivito]

5. Hm mm. Not the subtle difference. No one else.

Perhaps I'll be the only one.

[Zookeeper]

6. I haven't been following the story, so...

I haven't seen a change.

However, in our school district, soda is not available in elementary schools. The middle and high schools make money from the vending machines, though.

I never let my kids have soda at home, but once they reached middle school, I lost control over it since it was so readily available.

Artificially sweetened soda? Yuck! I have a daughter with Type 1 diabetes and I've always preferred that she have regular soda and take insulin for it, rather than consume those really questionable chemicals.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

7. I'm old, but

why the hell do kids need snacks and crap to get through the school day?

I mean, eat fucking lunch, go to classes, and worry about shoving shit into your gaping young maws on your own time.

I'm old.

But I'm right.

[walldude]

11. Agreed.. I'm a big pop drinker but kids in school

don't need it. What they need in schools is a class showing how corporations use advertising to manipulate kids into using their products, not the products themselves.

[seriousstan]

13. May I just say......

NO SHIT!!

[OldLeftieLawyer]

14. Awwwwwwwwww

Have a candy bar on me, baby ................ :)

[SoCalDem]

17. AMEN.. We had drinking fountains (water) and lunch..that's IT

when we got HOME we could snack all we wanted.. If they even cauight you with food in your locker or desk or GUM..you got sent to the principal's office.

[Rosemary2205]

28. here here!! (nt)

[JitterbugPerfume]

31. Hear Hear

what Lefty said!!

[Sydnie]

8. Anyone connected the dots to Lynn Swann yet?

Remember the flap about "Jocks for Junk Food" when he was stumping for blivet**?

Is he still the chairman of the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports? Does he still work for the National Automatic Merchandising Association?

Is he still a candidate for Gov?

[JCMach1]

10. People forget many juices are also high in sugar!

OOOH, but it's natural... Natural can still give you a$$ diabetes...

Last time I checked the sugar in sodas came from sugar cane...

[bananas]

15. Fructose is much better than sucrose

"This is in spite of the fact that fructose causes less of a rise in blood glucose than sugar. Specifically, its glycemic index is 32 (where white bread = 100), while table sugar (sucrose) has a GI of 92.
http://www.mendosa.com/diabetes_update_28.htm

[TexasProgresive]

20. Cane sugar hasn't sweetened soda for years.

It is sweetened with high fructose corn syrup which ironically is used by researchers to get high levels of triglycerides in lab rats to test triglyceride lowering drugs.

I think that big push to use corn to sweeten soda was in-part to lower world prices of cane sugar as punishment to Cuba.

[savemefromdumbya]

12. killer sweeteners

[Random_Australian]

16. Actually, aspartme and phenylalanine (sp!) don't seem to be that bad

(except for those with specific intolerances).

However, knowing stuff about America causes me to agree with you.

Note: 'not that bad' strictly dependant on dosage.

[savemefromdumbya]

30. that's what they tell you

[incapsulated]

18. Well, if I were in high school, I would have nothing, then

Aspartame makes me sick, I can't drink anything with it. Sugar is at least a natural product. Bad in excess, like anything, of course. And shouldn't be shoveled at grade schoolers. But teens? eh.

For me, it's the whole idea of corporate america infiltrating the schools that bothers me. A lot. Fund our fucking schools, already.

[Tsiyu]

19. Clinton talked about this on NPR today

as I was flipping through channels I caught his comments.

He says they're going after the lunch ladies next, cuz of all that fatty food they cook.

[Coexist]

21. Our school doesn't allow ANY sodas on property

except in the teacher's lounge.

An interesting side note - I run a youth sports organization. 5 years ago when we started, our concession stand would sell (about) 60% soda, 30% sports drinks, 10% water.

It gradually changed, and now (to my great pleasure) we sell 45% water, 45% sports drinks, and 10% soda. It is mostly Mom's who drink diet soda, however, since we started stocking diet Green Tea, they seem to go for that instead.

[The2ndWheel]

22. They'll just buy twice as much outside

If you can't make it 6 hours without a soda during the day, you might have a problem.

Somehow I doubt soda companies will be losing money willingly.

[Coexist]

25. FYI - our high school sells coffee and coffee drinks.

Vanilla Lattes. But those icky ones that come out of a machine pre-mixed.

[Avalux]

23. Both bad, but sugar soda better than aspartame soda -

Getting our kids hooked on an artificial sweetener, one that some say exhibits addictive and carcinogenic properties is criminal; aspartame should have NEVER been approved for consumption. Kids will drink it because it's there.

How can the deciders say artificial is better???

[MelliMel]

24. We didn't have soda machines period in my day.

I'm not that old, but when I was in high scool, some 20+ years ago, there were no soda machines in my high school or in any other that I knew of.

Why do kids need soda? When did soda become such a common beverage? It was a treat in my parents house and I have tried my darndest to continue that in my home.

Soda in our house is a privilege, not a right.

[LWolf]

26. Our school has no soda, but

has a "juice drink" machine. They still get the sugar. It's the sugar that is at issue. For long-term health, and for short-term behavior. As a classroom teacher, I'm fine with banning sugar from school grounds, including backpacks and lunches. It's not the parents who will spend the day in a room managing 30 + kids with wildly fluctuating energy and focus levels as the sugar highs and crashes unfold.

[Rosemary2205]

27. HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP

it ain't sugar.

Yes, high schoolers need a choice. The drinking fountain in the hallway near the bathroom, or the drinking fountain over by the office. - or if the school just cannot manage to keep the filters clean - a choice of bottled water.

If dear mom and dad want to give the kid enough money to blow on gallons of pop on the way home from school, well more power to um. As Jane Taxpayer, I'm just really not interested in creating a whole generation of childhood diabetics and/or cancer patients.

[soothsayer]

29. oh, aspartame---rummy's sweetener. gonna wash down tamiflu

(rummy's flu drug) with it? poor doomed kids