The big news of the day - - Pepsi will stop marketing sugary carbonated soft drinks to schools in over 200 countries by 2012. That's big. And it earns them big points in my book, health for a world wide obesity epidemic before profits.
Our obesity problem costs an estimated 95 billion dollars per year in health care costs according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). The belly bulge is a systemic problem cutting a deep path to many major health problems and diseases.
CSPI has been on the soft drink industry tail for years calling colas, "liquid candy" and asking for a soft drink tax to curb the pocket book and appetites. The recommendation was to fund health care and disease prevention programs with the tax.
PepsiCo, the second largest soft drink manufacturer, has pledged to only sell water, low fat milk, or sports drinks to athletic departments and low cal Diet Pepsi to secondary schools.
The big guy Coca-Cola, the largest manufacturer in the soft drink industry, changed their school sales policy about a month ago agreeing to not market elementary schools with sugary carbonated concoctions but believes secondary schools have the right to make their own decision to sell any type of soft drink. Pro drink choice?
When I was in high school in rural Mississippi "ah-hem" years ago, buying a Coke in the school store via fountain with ice, cup with straw was a big deal, a rite-of-teenage-passage. You were super cool to hang out in the wooden pavilion dubbed "school store" sipping a soft drink and eating chips during break. You were even cooler, if you got to work there running the fountain drink machine standing next to the store manager, the typing teacher who openly smoked and had a beehive hairdo.
Personally, I still enjoy an icy Diet Coke and have trained myself to view it as a treat and not a mainstay to meals. The "treat" mentality is especially true when it's served in the form of a Route 44 Diet Coke at Sonic during half-price Happy Hour, which presents another temptation within itself, not to mention the Styrofoam cups that plaque my conscious.
With Pepsi leading the way, my soft drink dollar and hat will tip to them. And while I like many, don't believe this will magically solve our childhood obesity problem, it will count. It will go a long way when every sugary ounce and pound counts.
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