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Nation's future lard fannies can't blame school vending machines

Date published: 2/20/2002

ARLINGTON--A General
Assembly panel has shelved
Sen. Madison Marye's bill to force all Virginia schools to banish vending machines that dispense soft drinks and snacks. However, the issue appears to have plenty
of shelf-life.

Armed with reports like the Surgeon General's recent finding that obesity is a major health threat, the Food Police are demanding across the nation that schools ban such vending machines. They seek laws declaring schools to be commercial-free zones, an action that would negate profit-sharing partnerships between public schools and
private companies.

In addition, the Washington-based advocacy group known as the Center for Science in the Public Interest last year began pushing a tax on junk food, dubbed the Twinkie Tax.

A soda-pop and snack-food jihad against public-private partnerships could have a devastating impact on education. A recent survey by a vending-industry trade publication says vending-machine sales bring school districts around the nation about $750 million a year.

Schools use the money they earn from sales of soft drinks and snacks for such worthwhile items as physical-education classes, sports programs, computer purchases, scholarships, field trips, and clubs.

If that single 140-calorie soft drink the average teen-ager drank during a typical day were the sure link to obesity in adulthood, punitive taxes or outright prohibition would command moral force. And that would be the case not just with regard to school vending areas, but supermarkets, restaurants, convenience stores, and even home refrigerators--wherever the youngster might encounter a carbonated drink.

Existing research, however, suggests that trying to prevent obesity by targeting soda pop is rather like attempting to eliminate bad breath by banning mustard. One of the most recent studies came from Georgetown University's Center for Food and Nutrition Policy, which found no relationship between 12- to 16-year-olds' consumption of carbonated soft drinks and obesity. Other studies at Michigan State, Michigan, Emory, and Creighton universities have found soft drinks cause neither obesity nor bone loss, diabetes, dental cavities, or other ailments.

Of course, no one argues that teens should swill sodas all day long. In a properly run school, what student would have time or opportunity to do so anyway? When students do visit the vending areas, they are likely to find that most machines dispense juice and water, as well as the sugar-free and caffeine-free varieties of soda. The choices are theirs.

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Date published: 2/20/2002