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Policies effectively curb availability of sugary drinks in Boston schools
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Recent research in Preventing Chronic Disease reported that districtwide mandatory policies instituted in Boston to regulate the availability of sugar-sweetened beverages effectively reduced student exposure to these beverages.
“Competitive beverages are drinks sold outside of the federally reimbursable school meals program and include beverages sold in vending machines, a la carte lines, school stores and snack bars,” Rebecca S. Mozaffarian, MS, MPH, of the department of social and behavioral sciences at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and colleagues wrote. “Our study is a unique evaluation of a district-level competitive beverage policy 9 years after implementation. We provided evidence for sustainability and effectiveness in ensuring access to healthy competitive beverages.”
The researchers catalogued which competitive beverages were sold in 115 Boston public schools in 2013, after the school district enacted a policy in 2004 to ban all sugar-sweetened competitive beverages. To determine compliance with nutrient standards, beverage data were collected. Accessibility of both noncompliant and compliant beverages was calculated as an indicator of how closely schools were following competitive beverage standards.
Data showed that 89.6% of all the schools studied met the beverage nutrition standards. Of these elementary schools most often met nutrition standards (93.6%), followed by middle schools (84.6%) and high schools (79.2%).
Competitive beverages were not sold in 88.5% of elementary schools and 61.5% of middle schools. Only 37.5% of high schools, however, did not offer competitive beverages. Furthermore, 41.7% of high schools sold only beverages that met nutrition standards.
Mozaffarian and colleagues found that 61.4% of all students did not have any access to competitive beverages at school, and 24.1% of students had access to competitive beverages that met nutrition standards. Overall, 85.5% of all students attended schools that met beverage standards, while only 4% of all students had any access to sugar-sweetened beverages.
“These findings and policy implementation strategies may be particularly encouraging to school districts nationally as they work to comply with Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act Smart Snacks in Schools requirements,” Mozaffarian and colleagues wrote. “Our study demonstrates that a comprehensive districtwide competitive beverage policy with implementation support can translate into sustained healthier environments.” – by David Costill
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
Perspective
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Aneesh Tosh, MD
The study by Mozaffarian and colleagues offers reassuring findings regarding the availability of competitive beverages, including sugar-sweetened beverages, to the children and adolescents in the Boston Public School system. One of the most significant lifestyle changes that can be made by children and adolescents, especially those who are overweight or obese, is the elimination of sugar-sweetened beverages in their diet.
As children progress through adolescence toward adulthood, they become more responsible for their own choices, including what they decide to drink. Unfortunately, many of the beverage options that adolescents have available to them at school, home and their social gatherings contain significant amounts of sugar. While soda is the most commonly considered sugar-sweetened beverage, typically containing 100 to 200 calories per 12-ounce serving, many of our patients and families are unaware that fruit juice, sweet tea, sports drinks, coffee drinks and energy drinks contain the same amount of calories as soda, if not more.
The study finds that in at least one school district, a competitive beverage policy has limited competitive beverage availability to school-aged children. During our clinical consultations with patients and their families in our weight-management clinic, we regularly screen for beverage consumption and work hard to educate on the importance of eliminating them from their daily diet and limiting beverages to plain water and milk. The reduction of competitive beverage availability at schools is only part of the solution to the childhood obesity epidemic. Since children spend a significant amount of their day away from school, we encourage parents and other caregivers to demonstrate positive role-modeling by eliminating sugar-sweetened beverages at home, and also reducing their own sugared-beverage consumption.
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