Recently, the American Beverage Association (ABA), which includes Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Cadbury Schweppes, agreed to limit sweetened sodas in schools. The force behind the agreement? The Alliance for a Healthier Generation – a joint initiative of the William J. Clinton Foundation and the American Heart Association.
On its surface, this agreement is great news. Getting sweetened sodas out of schools is a big advance, and one that seems to help protect our children’s health. Kudos to the American Heart Association, The Clinton Foundation, and President Clinton himself for creating public awareness and concrete steps to deal with childhood obesity. In particular, I applaud their new initiatives to improve school lunches, provide nutrition education and wellness programs, and increase physical education and physical activity in schools.
So what’s the bad news?
Well, first of all, the ABA is hardly making this change out of the goodness of it’s heart. It had a chance to remove soda from schools when independent lawyers pressured it to do so-but stopped negotiating when it realized that a photo op with a former President was better than one with a bunch of lawyers forcing it’s hand. The ABA “sees the writing on the wall and is trying to prevent further legislation and litigation,” says Margo Wootan, of the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
So it agreed to stop selling sugared sodas in our nation’s schools. But that’s not nearly as big of a sacrifice as you’d think: Only a tiny, tiny fraction of the $63 billion industry’s revenue comes from school vending machine sales. The result? A great PR move that has little impact on the bottom line of food companies.
Second, take a look at what’s left on the table (or in the halls as the case may be). You’ve got diet sodas with aspartame, an artificial sweetener that’s been shown to increase appetite and have adverse neurological effects in susceptible people; “sports drinks,” which are also full of sugar and high fructose corn syrup; and caffeinated drinks that boost the stress hormone adrenalin in kids who are already frazzled.
Artificial sweeteners are particularly worrisome. (You’ll find them listed on labels as neotame, acesulfame potassium, saccharin, sucralose, dihydrochalcones, and, of course, aspartame, also known as NutraSweet®,) They’re also very popular: About two-thirds of adults consume artificial sweeteners.
Aspartame contains small amounts of methanol, a toxic alcohol. But when aspartame heats up-as a can of artificially sweetened soda easily does on a hot day-more methanol is created, boosting the odds of serious toxic effects
But just because these sweeteners are everywhere doesn’t mean they’re not harmful. In fact, plenty of questions remain about their safety-including both their short- and long-term risks.
Aspartame is a good example. Just look at the research. Aspartame contains small amounts of methanol, a toxic alcohol. But when aspartame heats up-as a can of artificially sweetened soda easily does on a hot day-more methanol is created, boosting the odds of serious toxic effects.
Other studies show that aspartame can actually trigger hunger, making us eat and drink more! Even worse, research suggests that aspartame may disrupt brain chemistry, possibly increasing the risk of seizures, depression, and headaches.
More studies are needed before we can say for sure how safe-or dangerous-aspartame truly is. But do you really want your kids being sold artificially sweetened drinks and becoming human guinea pigs in the meantime?
In the end, I hope that the ABA’s changes aren’t just lip service but become part of a broader public campaign to address the issues of obesity in children and adults in America. We’ve got to demand more accountability from our government and the food industry for the unhealthy environment they’ve helped create.
It’s not too late to change: In the 1950s, everyone who took an airplane flight had a pack of cigarettes placed on his or her tray. Now smoking is banned on flights and tobacco companies have been held responsible for the disease and destruction created by their products.
I believe that someday we will look back on the early part of this century as the dark ages when we allowed our society to eat toxic foods.
Here are a few things government and industry can do to make a change for the better:
- Add small taxes on junk foods and soft drinks to raise funds for anti-obesity campaigns.
- Place restrictions on food marketing to children, especially in schools and on television.
- Put calorie labels on fast foods.
- Make changes in farm subsidies to promote consumption of fruits and vegetables.
- Change campaign contribution laws.
- Create a government agency that’s independent of industry to regulate food, nutrition, and health.
What do you think?
Has the ABA gone far enough or should we demand more accountability from them as well as our congressional leaders?
Please share your thoughts by leaving a comment below.
To your good health,
Mark Hyman, MD
Phase out all genetically modified foods. We know these are related to cancer.
Well its a baby step anyway. Why should there be “any kind” of food machines on school property. The kids have a lunch break and if they need or want something more how about a refrigerated machine that dispenses apples, oranges or bananas. No gum, no candy, no chips or anything else. This has become such a troublesome issue and it shouldn’t be….plain and simple. Its up to the individual schools or boards to say “yes or no” to these companies. The kids are there 5 days a week to get an education not to eat their way through the day! Where’s our common sense.
Some say medicare is an albatross on the back of government (taxpayers). It is, but the costs of medicare would plummet if folks would just eat heathily and excercise. Those who lead unhealthy lifestyles need to be held accountable for their unhealthy living where it hurts their pocketbook as well. Being healthy just doesn’t seem to be enough to motivate. I see it in my own siblings.
The entire notion of eating healthy entails conventionally grown fruits, vegetables and grains devoid of any real nutrition, heavily sprayed, and genetically modified. GMO produce and grains have been proven to cause serious consequences. Similarly, herbicides, pesticides and fungicides contribute to chronic illnesses, certain cancers and to a significant number of degenerative diseases (not difficult to find the research evidence).
Fruit juices, granola bars and energy drinks are nothing but sweetened crap with zero nutritional value. Store bought boxed cereals, grain muffins, canned and packaged foodst the establishment promotes as healthy, are hardly healthy options and further contribute to the obesity and illness epidemic we commonly face.
Brewing organic teas and making your own treats with sprouted grains, raw seeds and nuts, local honey and other organic spices such as cinnamon and ginger are great options!
Unfortunately, the government will not, and refuses to provide subsidies to local, small and organic farms. Folks, that is where most of the nutritious, clean, healthy and delicious food comes from. To top it off, in many areas it is illegal or not per code regulations to grow your own food!
Local farm to consumer legal and permitted food clubs are being raided way too frequently without cause. The owners and employees are being treated like dangerous criminals and being arrested at gunpoint by thugs who are wearing riot control and bullet proof gear. They are both confiscating or trashing the fresh and nutrient dense foods, and in many cases no real charges are presented. Look up “Rawsome.” It is not uncommon for the Amish to be repeatedly raided now a days. These acts are a major disgrace to the most basic notion of self-sustenance and people need to wake up and stand up for their right to by healthy!
The system’s idea of preventive care entails drugs and mercury loaded vaccines. Gee, I wonder why children are developing serious allergies, neurological disorders and cancers at alarming rates. Not to mention a weakened immunity which makes then susceptible to any opportunistic pathogens.
One of the commandments of eating for life and health is to pay more for your food and eat less. This way, everyone saves a ton of money in health care bills! The other option to demand the gov’t to stop subsidising big business and to give to the small, healthy and sustainable farms instead.
In summary, do not give your powers away, do your research and become well educated, and demand your right to eat healthy, sustainable, fresh and organic foods from your local farms and your own garden!
good for you! a thinking man yeah
Aspartame also triggers the release of insulin, just like sugar. Releasing insulin prevents your body from activating its weight loss chemistry, so even if there are no calories to consume, there can be no weight loss with an insulin release.
Insulin release is only one of the side effects of aspartame. Read up on the dangers of aspartame in diet soda drinks by Coca Cola and Pepsi. Real scary and would put you off this distructive ingredient in any food or drink. Has a long list of side effects which really effect your quality of life.
I would love to see corporations banned from making campaign contributions; a corporation is not a person, does not vote, and should not be able to influence the political process through money. There should also be some limit to the flow of corporation-to-government/ govt-to-corp jobs; not a complete stop but something reasonable, to limit undue influence. Not sure about the idea of creating yet another government agency, though; just another taxpayer drain which will eventually fall under the same corporate influence. I’d rather see food intake (as opposed to agricultural marketing) & nutrition handled by the Health Dept; just getting it out of the USDA would be a big plus. The nutritional guidelines should be based on independent science or scrapped.
I’ve had insulin dependent diabetes for 50 years. That’s how long I’ve drank artificially sweetened drinks.. And I would feel so guilty for craving and eaing sweets! And to think the craving may have caused by the diet sodas
I am gradually cutting back on diet sodas and am begining to feel so much better!
actually since artificial sweeteners are worse for us (and less understood) than sugar I would feel more comfortable if drinks with artificial sweeteners and GM ingredients (including bovine growth hormone) were banned! as well as the yellow, reds and blue food colourings that have already been banned in other parts of the world!
while this article has brought attention to the problem of child hood obesity via poor nutrition, more goverment intervention is NOT THE ANSWER!!! personal responsibilty and parental guidence will be more effective
From information I gained back in 2005, the US Air Force Pilots are not allowed to drink any soft drinks with aspartame in them, this should be enough for everyone, also I think it was Monsanto let the trademark on aspartame lapse and there are now hundreds of the same thing under different names.
to change for the best, not just better, switch subsidising corn and dairy ,to fruit and vegetable growers.consumers will be healthier.
Why not simply charge a fat tax on fat people and leave healthy people alone?
I think it is so sad that our schools are part of the cause of our nation’s health crisis. I can’t see how they can justify selling any kind of sugary or artificially sweetened drinks to our youth! There is something so wrong with this picture! And to have our government subsidizing things that are not in the interest of good health instead of organically grown fruits, grains and vegetables shows it doesn’t have our best interests in mind. And that large corporations have power!
It certainly doesn’t give you much faith in our government.
Let all subsidies go away. ALL OF THEM. Let the public decide where they want their money to go. Not let some government elite decide which companies succeed and which ones fail. Only through education can you fix this problem but not through propaganda. All the FACTS have to be laid out and people need to make choices for themselves. That is called FREEDOM. But with freedom comes responsibility. If you need health care because you chose to eat crap, then you pay for it, not the general population.
Education and availability is the key. I think most people do the best they can with their resources, but just have no idea about nutrition. .When have you gotten nutritional advice from a physician other than to “eat right”? And even nutritional experts cannot agree. I see the brilliance of Dr. Hyman’s philosophy, but I bet the majority of Americans think he’s completely over the top! We can’t change the world overnight, but we CAN change ourselves!