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A Sweet Deal?

Bridget Hickson, 13, starts each school day with a pop--the sugary, fizzy kind. The seventh-grader in New York City drinks one 20-ounce bottle of Coke or Sprite before classes begin at 8 a.m. At lunchtime she guzzles two more bottles of soda pop. "I like the way it tickles my throat," she says. Total cost for the three bottles of bubbly pop: $2.70. Total teaspoonfuls of sugar in the three bottles: about 50.

Bridget's passion for pop is not that unusual. Kids today are drinking more soda than ever before, and many are buying it in school. In 1997 kids spent $750 million on soda, candy and chips in school vending machines!

While soda companies get much of that money, schools keep some too. Money from soda-machine sales helps pay for books, computers, sports programs and after-school activities. School officials say they cannot afford to lose the funds that come from vending machines.

But health experts are concerned that selling sugary soda in schools encourages poor nutrition. They want schools to unplug their soda machines, even if it means less cash for school supplies.

Cans Help The Cash Flow
In Florida the school soda-machine debate has recently exploded like a shaken-up can of you-know-what. Last month Florida's Governor Jeb Bush asked the department of education to make it easier for high school kids to buy soft drinks. Bush supports soda sales because they sweeten school budgets.

Since 1997, students in Florida have not been allowed to use school soft-drink machines until one hour after lunch. The rule is intended to encourage kids to buy milk and other healthy drinks at lunchtime. But as a result, schools in Florida are collecting fewer dollars from soda sales.

John Fox, the athletic director in Duvall County, Florida, says sports programs in his county have lost $450,000 since the vending-machine restrictions began two years ago. That money was supposed to fund "everything from transportation to uniforms," says Fox. For now, new uniforms will have to wait.

In Colorado Springs, Colorado, schools don't try to limit soda drinking. Instead, they encourage it! A school district there has a 10-year deal with the Coca-Cola Company. In exchange for selling only Coke products, the schools receive $8 million from Coke. To earn that money, the schools must sell 1.68 million bottles of Coke products every year.

When the district sold too few Cokes last year, school official John Bushey wrote a letter to local principals asking them to help sell more. "If 35,439 staff and students buy one Coke product every other day for a school year," he wrote, "we will double the required quota." He even signed the letter "the Coke Dude." Many health experts were angry that a school official was pushing sugary soda as part of his job.

Sugar, Sugar, Sugar
"Soda pop is junk," declares nutritionist Michael Jacobson. "It has no vitamins, no minerals, no protein and no fiber." Jacobson is the director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest and the author of Liquid Candy, a 1998 report on the health effects of soft drinks.

According to Liquid Candy, the average teenage boy gulps 15 teaspoonfuls of sugar every day in the form of soft drinks! The average teenage girl swallows 10 teaspoonfuls of sugar daily from pop. Overall, kids today consume more than twice as much soda as they did 20 years ago.

Heaping helpings of sugar from soft drinks can lead to many health problems, including obesity and tooth decay.

In addition, kids who fill up on soda instead of more nutritious foods miss out on important vitamins and minerals. Choosing soda over milk, for example, prevents some kids from getting the calcium they need to build strong bones and teeth.

Still, Jacobson admits that for lots of kids a bright green or orange soda fizzes with more appeal than plain, flat milk. "Soda is fun and attractive," he says.

A Sticky Dilemma
At Radnor Middle School in Wayne, Pennsylvania, student-government members are helping decide whether to bring soda machines into their school. Tyler Bilek, 13, favors the machines. "Kids bring soda in from home anyway," he says. "At least it would benefit the school if they bought it here."

Making the case against soda machines is Jordan Ellis, 14: "We don't need any more sugar being pumped into our bodies, especially not at school."

Sugar Overdose
A 12-ounce can of soda contains 10 teaspoonfuls of sugar! Most soda has no vitamins or protein.

Next: Tears For A Town In Shock