Goodbye to soda.Have you noticed that your school's vending machines aren't stocking soda anymore? Has soda disappeared from your school's vending machines? If so, there is a good reason why. As part of an effort to curb childhood obesity childhood obesity Public health Overweight in a child, an average BMI of ≥ 85% for age and sex; ≥ 95% for age and sex is very obese. See Body-mass index, Obesity. Cf Adult obesity. , many schools have stopped offering sugary soft drinks. The idea came from former President Bill Clinton. He is concerned about the problem of childhood obesity, which affects nearly one third of U.S. kids ages 6 to 19. Clinton, who was overweight as a child, underwent heart surgery in 2004. "I may have done some damage in those years when I was too careless about what I ate,', he said then. Recently, Clinton worked with the American Heart Association American Heart Association (AHA), n.pr a national voluntary health agency that has the goal of increasing public and medical awareness of cardiovascular diseases and stroke, and thereby reducing the number of associated deaths and disabilities. to reach an agreement with the three biggest soft-drink companies. Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and Cadbury Schweppes Cadbury Schweppes plc is a confectionery and beverage company with its headquarters in Berkeley Square, London, England, UK. Cadbury Schweppes is currently the only major international confectionery manufacturer to produce Fairtrade or organic products, which it sells through its agreed to stop offering sweetened sweet·en v. sweet·ened, sweet·en·ing, sweet·ens v.tr. 1. To make sweet or sweeter by adding sugar, honey, saccharin, or another sweet substance. 2. To make more pleasant or agreeable. drinks--including sodas, sports drinks, and some fruit juices--in school cafeterias. The program will be phased in over the next three years. Instead of soda, participating schools will offer 100 percent fruit juices, bottled water, and nonfat non·fat adj. Lacking fat solids or having the fat content removed. and low-fat milk Noun 1. low-fat milk - milk from which some of the cream has been removed milk - a white nutritious liquid secreted by mammals and used as food by human beings . Much more must be done to fight obesity, Clinton warns, but the agreement is a step in the right direction. If an 8-year-old took in 45 fewer calories per day, Clinton said, by high school that kid would weigh 20 pounds less than he or she would otherwise. Raymond Gaughran, an eighth-grader at Jose Marti Middle School in Union City, New Jersey, doubts that the policy will have much of an effect. "Kids just bring their own soda from home, if they want it," he says. |
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