Lower Presence of High-Calorie Drinks in Schools
First lady Michelle Obama, who has taken on the cause of childhood obesity prevention, will be happy to hear this: fewer high-calorie drinks are being shipped to the nation’s schools.
The Alliance for a Healthier Generation (a partnership of the William J. Clinton Foundation and the American Heart Association) in 2006 worked with Coca-Cola Company, PepsiCo, and other soda and juice makers to limit portion sizes and reduce the number of beverage calories available to kids during the school day.
In its third and final report on the impact of the 2006 guidelines, the American Beverage Association said since the start of the 2004-2005 school year, the number of beverage calories shipped to schools has dropped by 88 percent.
The president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey said in a statement that the results are “encouraging” but that more has to be done to reduce the number of obese children and youth, said to total 23 million or nearly one in three young people.