City of San Francisco bans sale of sugary drinks in city-run vending machines

I'm filing this in the "Good Luck with That" folder.  The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

Newsom's directive, issued in April but whose practical impacts are starting to be felt now, bars calorically sweetened beverages from vending machines on city property.

That includes non-diet sodas, sports drinks and artificially sweetened water. Juice must be 100 percent fruit or vegetable juice with no added sweeteners. Diet sodas can be no more than 25 percent of the items offered, the directive says.

There should be "ample choices" of water, "soy milk, rice milk and other similar dairy or non dairy milk," says the directive, which also covers fat and sugar content in vending machine snacks.

It's all part of Newsom's effort to combat obesity and improve San Franciscans' health, similar to a national effort being championed by first lady Michelle Obama.

The mayor's administration points to studies linking soda to obesity, including a UCLA one released last year that found adults who drink at least one soft drink a day are 27 percent more likely to be obese than those who don't, and that soda consumption is fueling the state's $41 billion annual obesity problem. The study also found that 41 percent of children and 62 percent of teens drink at least one soda daily.

What are the odds that people who drink "at least one" sugary drink per day have other bad habits?  And really, if it were the one sugary drink, don't you think they might have that on their own time?  Interesting start, I suppose, but perhaps they could put more thought and effort into this. 

Read the full article at the link. 

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Posted by: gisela on 2010-07-15 10:27:19

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