The truth is now out that sugar is a leading cause of obesity and heart disease. So why should Coca-Cola continue to sell its high-sugar drinks in schools?
For decades schools have had an addictive relationship with sodas, says Health Day’s Chris Woolston. School programs struggling for cash rely heavily upon the huge sums they get from the soft drink industry in exchange for allowing vending machines on campus.
Just as the sugar industry skewed research results on how sugar affects heart disease, the soft drink industry, in the early 2000s, paid the American Dietetic Association to present soft drinks in a favorable light in its fact sheet about “Beverage Choices.” The majority of the fact sheet's text was devoted to “dispelling concerns about soda," including its link to "weight gain, cavities, and bone-thinning among children and teens,” adds Woolston.
Childhood obesity specialists say severely obese children often drink most of their calories. With 17 teaspoons of sugar in every 20-ounce bottle of soda, 4 daily drinks add up to an extra 1000 calories.
Funding for school programs is essential to their survival. But if drink companies are to continue selling at schools, they should be required to reduce the sugar content of beverages - at least those sold on campus.
Sign this petition to insist Coca-Cola reduce the sugar content of its beverages sold on school campuses.
To Mr. Muhtar Kent, CEO of Coca-Cola Company:
As a former child nutrition specialist, I have long been concerned about children drinking high-sugar sodas, and also the fact that that sugar is in the form of high fructose corn syrup.
CBS reported in 2006 that a study published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, found that
"sugar-sweetened drinks were purchased by almost three times as many students than the next popular item: water.
And the Harvard School of Public Health’s website notes that:
A “significant portion” of the billions US beverage companies spend marketing sodas is “aimed directly at youth ages 2–17," and that “Studies funded by the beverage industry are four to eight times more likely to show a finding favorable to industry than independently-funded studies."
It is time for the beverage industry to take responsibility for the harm it has done to children’s health. As a minimal step to reduce the impact of sugar on children’s health in the future, the least Coca Cola should do is reduce the sugar content of beverages it sells on school campuses.
Thanks for your time.
