A farewell to fizz from LA lunchrooms

"This is like using a squirt gun to put out a forest fire," says Sean McBride, spokesman for the National Soft Drink Association. "The LAUSD has missed an important opportunity to stem rising obesity rates by having more physical education in their schools and better nutrition education. You can't single out one small part of the problem and act like you've fixed it."

McBride and others note that the LAUSD's decision will cost the district thousands of dollars in revenue that has long been used to purchase athletic equipment and facilities that promote the exercise necessary to overcome the same health problems.

At San Fernando High School, for instance, officials say their campus used $40,000 in income from its Coca-Cola contract for athletic programs, school projects and field trips not funded by the district. Jefferson High School reportedly earned $88,000 and Belmont High School netted over $50,000 according to the LAUSD.

But proponents of the measure said it is possible that the same funds can be raised by selling other products, from t-shirts to ball caps.

"More school districts should be actively fighting childhood obesity and not encouraging it by striking deals with soda companies," says Margo Wootan, director of nutrition policy for the Center for Science in the Public Interest. "We sympathize with cash strapped schools, but it doesn't make sense to promote nutrition in the classroom but promote junk food in the cafeteria."

Some hold that the entire question is one of nutrition education.

Carmen Nevarez, vice president and medical director of Public Health Institute, a nonprofit organization that conducts research and education on food issues worldwide, says school districts in Santa Monica and Berkeley used the fat scares of earlier decades to begin whole food co-ops on school grounds, teaching kids how to grow and how to eat healthier farm fresh foods.

"Kids need to learn from an early age what is good for them and what isn't ... and parents need to know there are training the palate of their kids in ways that will last a lifetime," she says.

But for now, teen soda consumption – McBride says the average is 1.2 drinks per day; CCPHA's Goldstein says two – makes some skeptical that the LAUSD's soft-drink ban will prove effective.

In the early '90s, after similar studies showed the negative effects of high-fat diets, several school districts nationwide tried to cut back on their sales of hamburgers, pizzas, and other high-cholesterol foods. But Officials say kids responded by taking their lunch money off campus to purchase their pizza and burgers.

"They voted with their feet, and school cafeterias suffered as a result," says Levinson.

So, Ms. Nevarez of the Public Health Institute reasons, if better nutrition education meant more young people demanded healthy drink options, soft-drink companies would find a way to provide them.

"This doesn't have to be the end of revenue streams for everyone," she says. "This is just the realization that it doesn't have to be done with fatty, sugary food."

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