Editor’s note: This commentary is by Niels Giddins, MD, who is a pediatric cardiologist at the University of Vermont Children’s Hospital.
[T]hirty gallons.
That’s the average quantity of sugary drinks a child in America drinks in a year.
Thirty-four pounds.
That’s the average amount of sugar an adult in America consumes each year in sugary drinks.
It’s pretty shocking and makes you cringe just a bit. But what’s worse is that currently, 60% of adults and nearly 30% of children in Vermont are at an unhealthy weight. One of the biggest culprits in the obesity crisis is sugary drinks. We need to do more to curb consumption.
As a pediatric cardiologist, I see many children facing constant challenges to overcome life-threatening heart defects and cardiac disease. It’s my job to try to help them live as healthy a life as possible. But our tools in medicine and surgery (advanced as they have become) are not enough when the norms of a society become so detrimental that kids are now suffering from diseases once only seen in adults. It’s time for policy makers to step in to help.
A good place to start is with restaurant kids’ meals and ensuring that children are offered healthy drinks first. Families are going out more and more due to hectic scheduling and getting from home to school to tutors and sports practice. Simply put, they’re exhausted and fast-food is a quick and easy choice for tired and hungry kids.
However, one of the culprits standing between children’s and families’ access to healthy meals is sugary drinks. No parent would ever dream of letting their child dump sugar into the drink that comes with their dinner; yet, in one kids’ size, 12-ounce cup of soda lies a hidden 10 teaspoons of sugar. That’s the same amount of sugar found in three glazed doughnuts, a bag of candy-coated chocolates or nine chocolate chip cookies!
I’m not saying we should ban sugary drinks outright. No, the proposal is to make sugary drinks the exception, not the rule; the option, not the default. Sodas and sports drinks would remain on the regular menu, but fast-food, casual dining and sit-down restaurants should offer healthier drinks like water, milk, and 100% fruit juice as the automatic options served in their kids’ meals.
Sugary drinks – we’re talking soda, fruit-flavored juices and sports drinks – provide no health benefits. Instead, this candy in a cup leads children on the path to high blood pressure, fatty liver disease, and type 2 diabetes. Young patients with such problems are seen increasingly frequently by my pediatric specialist colleagues.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. Restaurants right here in Vermont can offer healthy alternatives as the automatic drinks in kids’ meals. In fact, two places kids love – Disney World and McDonald’s – are already doing it and with great success.
When Disney World began offering healthier drink defaults with their kids’ meals, guests opted for healthier beverages two-thirds of the time (even though sugary drinks were still available upon request). And at U.S. McDonald’s restaurants, removing sodas from the Happy Meal menu resulted in 21 million more low-fat and fat-free milk servings and 100 percent apple juice boxes sold over a period of 11 months.
Imagine the good we could do for the children of this state if these were the standard drinks for all kids eating out.
The legislation, S.141, has already passed the Vermont Senate. That’s great news. I ask you to join me in urging the House Human Services Committee to take up this measure and pass it so the house can as well. Timely action will result in the best outcomes for all Vermonters.
