From the Department of Duh!
This New York Times article about school soda bans made me heave a long, deep sigh…
State laws that ban soda in schools — but not other sweetened beverages — have virtually no impact on the amount of sugary drinks middle school students buy and consume at school, a new study shows.
The study, which looked at thousands of public school students across 40 states, found that removing soda from cafeterias and school vending machines only prompted students to buy sports drinks, sweetened fruit drinks and other sugar-laden beverages instead. In states that banned only soda, students bought and consumed sugary drinks just as frequently at school as their peers in states where there were no bans at all.
…But the sale of soft drinks in schools has become a lucrative revenue source for many school districts, and a number of states have been reluctant to eliminate them from schools. Some states have instituted only partial bans that remove sodas from schools but not Snapple, Gatorade and other sugary drinks.
The researchers found that the proportion of students who purchased sugary drinks at schools in states that removed only soda — 28.9 percent — was similar to the proportion in states that had no bans against any sugary drinks at all — 26 percent. Both groups also reported having identical levels of access to sugary beverages at school: about 67 percent in each category.
Emphasis mine.
Gee, ya mean half-assed bans with loopholes big enough to drive a truck through don’t work?! Hoocoodanode?
