Pepsi says no to soda in schools

[rickrock305]

good for Pepsi.



http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703734504575125933541574988.html?mod=WSJ_business_whatsNews
PepsiCo Inc. said Tuesday it will remove full-calorie sweetened drinks from schools in more than 200 countries by 2012, marking the first such move by a major soft-drink producer.

PepsiCo announced its plan the same day first lady Michelle Obama urged major companies to put less fat, salt and sugar in foods and reduce marketing of unhealthy products to children. Pepsi, the world's second-biggest soft-drink maker, and Coca-Cola Co., the biggest, adopted guidelines to stop selling sugary drinks in U.S. schools in 2006.

The World Heart Federation has been urging soft-drink makers for the past year to remove sugary beverages from schools. The group is looking to fight a rise in childhood obesity, which can lead to diabetes and other ailments.

PepsiCo's move is what the group had been seeking because it affects students through age 18, said Pekka Puska, president of the World Heart Federation, made up of heart associations around the world. In an interview from Finland, Dr. Puska said he hopes other companies feel pressured to take similar steps. "It may be not so well known in the U.S. how intensive the marketing of soft drinks is in so many countries,'' he said. Developing countries such as Mexico are particularly affected, he added.

Coca-Cola changed its global sales policy earlier this month to say it won't sell any of its drinks in primary schools world-wide unless parents or districts ask. The policy doesn't apply to secondary schools. The World Heart Federation wants drinks with added sugars removed from schools with students through age 18.

Asked if it would expand its policy to secondary schools, Coca-Cola said in a statement that authorities "should have the right to choose what is best for their schools.''

In primary schools, PepsiCo will sell only water, fat-free or low-fat milk and juice with no added sugar. In secondary schools, it will also sell low-calorie drinks like Diet Pepsi. Sports drinks are permissible when sold to students engaged in sports and physical activities.

PepsiCo's policy requires cooperation from bottlers, vending companies and other distributors who bring the company's products to schools worldwide. The company said it didn't have exact figures for sales in schools around the world but said they didn't make up a major portion of sales.

In the U.S., the industry has swapped lower-calorie options into schools to replace sugary drinks. Sales of full-calorie soft drinks fell 95% in U.S. schools between fall 2004 and fall 2009, the American Beverage Association reported last week.

The industry voluntarily adopted guidelines in 2006 as part of an agreement with the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, a joint initiative of former President Bill Clinton's foundation and the American Heart Association.

Dr. Puska said defeating childhood obesity isn't as simple as just removing sugary drinks from schools. Students must also exercise and eat better, not just at school but at home as well. Students should learn these habits at schools, he said.

[Belmont31R]

So I suppose its just easier to remove any choices than to teach kids to make smart decisions?

[citizensoldier16]

Give a kid a choice between soda and milk, and I bet you they'll choose soda 9 out of 10 times, so asking kids to make smart decisions (while commendable when they do) isn't going to solve the problem. Look at the lunch lines.

We had Domino's pizza in high school along with the standard cafeteria fare. Nobody ate the broccoli or spinach and almost everyone who bought lunch opted for pizza and fries 5 days a week. I know because I was one of them and I stood in that line for 4 years in HS.

[Cascades236]

So I suppose its just easier to remove any choices than to teach kids to make smart decisions?

You're right. Bring back the vending machines but add options for alcohol, cigarettes and teenage pregnancy. We have to do something about all these damn fat kids!

[Irish]

You're right. Bring back the vending machines but add options for alcohol, cigarettes and teenage pregnancy.

How do I get enrolled?!?! :D

[bkb0000]

You're right. Bring back the vending machines but add options for alcohol, cigarettes and teenage pregnancy.

hell yea. you train a soldier for war by sticking them in the middle of combat, right?

i'm all for free market and free choice, but only for discerning adults. people either forget, don't realize, or disbelieve that mature cognitive reasoning isn't physiologically possible in human brains before the age of 20 or so, and most won't be fully developed until 26-28.

teenagers are ****in stupid. they can't make good choices to save their lives- literally, often times.

[lethal dose]

hell yea. you train a soldier for war by sticking them in the middle of combat, right?

i'm all for free market and free choice, but only for discerning adults. people either forget, don't realize, or disbelieve that mature cognitive reasoning isn't physiologically possible in human brains before the age of 20 or so, and most won't be fully developed until 26-28.

teenagers are ****in stupid. they can't make good choices to save their lives- literally, often times.
Word.

[chadbag]

Good for them

now lets see them remove the diet versions from all schools including HS

stop using high fructose corn syrup in their normal sodas.

[-gary]

So I suppose its just easier to remove any choices than to teach kids to make smart decisions?

Haven't seen any milk and juice vending machines in the schools I've been to.

[Belmont31R]

You're right. Bring back the vending machines but add options for alcohol, cigarettes and teenage pregnancy. We have to do something about all these damn fat kids!




Nice straw man argument.....because soda is the same as alcohol and tobacco in schools.....:rolleyes:



Banning soda machines in school is so effective, you know, because they can't bring soda with them or buy it right after school....that one lunch period or break without being able to buy a soda at school is going to be sooooo effective.

[civilian]

Yes, it will be effective. It's one less fricking soda in their day. But I tell you what we'll do...we'll stock your kid's locker up with soda so s/he won't miss a beat. Parents have to do their part at home and teach good habits, but taking this shit out of our public schools is a good step, no matter how much you think a fat kid will pass up cake simply because he was told to do so by mom.

[Belmont31R]

Yes, it will be effective. It's one less fricking soda in their day. But I tell you what we'll do...we'll stock your kid's locker up with soda so s/he won't miss a beat. Parents have to do their part at home and teach good habits, but taking this shit out of our public schools is a good step, no matter how much you think a fat kid will pass up cake simply because he was told to do so by mom.



HS is right before people go out into the world on their own for the 1st time.



If you haven't taught kids to make smart decisions on their own by then you've already failed as a parent.



Just like the 17 year old girl I knew who was a family friend, and didn't even know how to pay for gas or pump it because she was never taught. You take away all these things from kids they can do as adults, and they no concept of how to handle it. Just like people in Europe handle their alcohol a lot better because they are not "cut off" until 21, and the drinking ages aren't really enforced. Here we have this idea if you just hide things from kids you'll solve the problem, and then they reach some magical age being able to do all these things on their own will with no idea what responsible consumption is.


What this amounts to is some feel good "rule" that really is going to have no benefit. As I said if they simply stop selling it kids either take it with them or buy it directly after school. I remember people bringing pot and alcohol to use at school. Cutting out vending machines to sell soda? Its laughable actually when kids are sneaking out back to go smoke pot, and walking around drinking "water" that is really sprite and vodka. But keep on ahead because the next step is soda taxes on all of us, restricted to only skinny people, etc. Once you get this ball rolling in this sort of manner its hard to stop, and you may not like the end result in 15-20 years. Just like the "old timers" talking about bringing their hunting rifle with them to school 20 years ago so they could go shoot things after class. I guess I get to be the old timer talking to me kids how I got to eat things other than tofu and enriched water.

[nolacola]

This is fantastic! I hope more companies follow suit.

Too many kids these days grow up not learning proper eating habits from their parents. They live in obese households with no control over what is brought into the home and made for meals. By the time they are old enough to properly think for themselves and have the ability to make proper choices they've already been ingrained with an upbringing of laziness and filling their bodies with junk and don't know how to live any differently.

Schools are where kids need to learn about health and proper nutrition because a lot of times they aren't going to be learning it at home. Obesity is turning into a learned trait passed down from poor parenting choices and the cycle needs to be broken somewhere.

[bkb0000]

But keep on ahead because the next step is soda taxes on all of us, restricted to only skinny people, etc. Once you get this ball rolling in this sort of manner its hard to stop, and you may not like the end result in 15-20 years. Just like the "old timers" talking about bringing their hunting rifle with them to school 20 years ago so they could go shoot things after class. I guess I get to be the old timer talking to me kids how I got to eat things other than tofu and enriched water.

this isn't a piece of legislation, it's a company marketing technique to increase revenue by appearing to have a conscience. slippery slope cant really apply here, hones.

[ForTehNguyen]

how about educating on the effects of these instead? Just taking stuff away doesn't teach anyone anything. Short term knee jerk reaction.

Thank you farm subsidies and sugar tariffs for making unhealthy High Fructose Corn Syrup possible.

[bkb0000]

how about educating on the effects of these instead? Just taking stuff away doesn't teach anyone anything. Short term knee jerk reaction.

Thank you farm subsidies and sugar tariffs for making unhealthy High Fructose Corn Syrup possible.

education in addition to removal of the sugary, caffeinated drink.

if you're a supporter of allowing kids to have access to things that are totally unnecessarily unhealthy, let me ax you dis- do you have current access to teenagers? 'cause i'm the oldest child in my family by 11 years... my next oldest sibling is 17.. next are my twin brothers at 16, then 14, then 12, then 9... thats right, 7 of us total. my point is- i have a lot of access to not just my own brothers and sister, but their hundreds of friends, too.

they're all ****ing stupid. to a man. blood and friend alike. stupid. none have diagnosed ADHD (no kin, at least- some of the friends probably do), but all act like it, poor grasp of social interaction with adults, completely fail to understand how anyone over 20 is totally uninterested in their teenage drama, cant even stand each other.. persistent, consistent piss-poor decision-making all around, and i can't believe there have been no teenage pregnancies so far. at least one of the boys gets into a fight almost daily, it's absolutely no surprise when one gets arrested- and we're not talking about serious crimes, we're talking STUPID shit... like vandalism, trespassing, j-walking (yes, this happened), the occasional MIP, etc.. the girls have ****ed up snobby attitudes toward anyone and everyone but their own dumb-bitch slut friends, who in turn treat them like shit/stab them in the back daily/seem to associate with them for no other purpose than to bully them. it doesn't matter if you're telling them not to Mp3 player/gameboy/text message at the dinner table or complimenting them- if you open your mouth and send words in their direction, you get a shitty attitude and rolled eyes in response. and all of these little shitheads drinks about 20 sugary caffeinated beverages at school every day. sometimes literally. for the record, my mother allows no sodapop in the house.

cutting out 90% of their daily sugar/caffeine intake cant be anything but a drastic improvement.

[Belmont31R]

this isn't a piece of legislation, it's a company marketing technique to increase revenue by appearing to have a conscience. slippery slope cant really apply here, hones.




Schools have been doing this for a while, and its been talked about for a long time. Even the 1st lady is on a mission to see only "health" foods in schools.

[bkb0000]

Schools have been doing this for a while, and its been talked about for a long time. Even the 1st lady is on a mission to see only "health" foods in schools.

good for her. i hope she fails, because i hate laws- but good for her.