New America Media, News Report, Viji Sundaram
Even as the consumption of sugary drinks among young children in California is beginning to decline, a study released today shows a significant spike among adolescents.
The study found that fully 65 percent of children between 12 and 17 drink soda and other sugary drinks every day, which is an 8 percent spike since 2005, when the study began.
In the seven-year study, researchers at the California Center for Public Health Advocacy (CCPHA) and the UCLA Center of Health Policy Research found that there was in fact an overall drop by 11 percent in the consumption of sugary beverages by young people, but when they teased the numbers, they found that there was a decline in consumption among children under 11 and an increase in consumption among adolescents, noted CCPHA’s executive director Dr. Harold Goldstein, one of two authors of the study.
How did this happen?
“We got sodas out of schools and out of licensed child care centers, but a loophole in the state law allowed sports drinks in middle schools and high schools,” Goldstein said, adding sarcastically: “As if there’s a need to replace electrolytes in teens for carrying their backpacks.”
More than 40,000 California households were interviewed by the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) for the study titled, Still Bubbling Over: California Adolescents Drinking More Soda and Other Sugar-Sweetened Beverages.
Adolescents responded for themselves, but parents spoke on behalf of younger children
Read more at New America Media and California Center for Public Health Advocacy
