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American Morning

Will Banning Soda Pop in Schools Lead to End to Childhood Obesity?

Aired August 27, 2002 - 09:32   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Will banning the sugary beverages lead to an end to childhood obesity? We have brought back our medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta to do a little bit more work for us here. Kids and soda pops?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. You are a product of L.A. schools, right?

KAGAN: L.A. schools, and I got to say, I drank a lot of soda pop.

GUPTA: It is a complicated problem, childhood obesity, but it certainly got the attention of a lot of people, 6 to 19 percent or so of kids, adolescents even, are obese now, overweight or obese, and that is a real problem. People are trying to figure out new ways to curb that problem. Banning soda pop alone may not be the only answer.

Certainly soda pop is bad for you. I think everyone agrees on that. It promotes tooth decay, it's bad for your bones, it may stunt growth, people become addicted to it, and it's empty calories, 120 to 150 empty calories with every can that you drink.

Instead most experts recommend drinking things like water, milk, juices, things like that, which they are actually trying to implement in schools rather than the soda pop machines. But in a nutshell, Daryn, I think banning soda pop alone isn't probably going to solve this complicated problem.

KAGAN: Maybe a start. A couple of problems, first of all, there are still going to be able to sell those sports drinks, which are loaded with sugar.

GUPTA: Unbelievably so -- 150 calories in some of those drinks.

KAGAN: So that's not necessarily the answer.

Also there's a whole profit idea, that they weren't just selling the pop, the money from that was going to help fund things like band, and field trips and other activities.

GUPTA: Right, and now they will be funding the local store down the corner basically, because I think kids will still get their own soda pop and just bring it to school instead I think probably.

KAGAN: You are thinking like the juvenile delinquent that you once were, you are going to get your soda pop, no matter how. And on the bigger picture of childhood obesity, like you said, this is just maybe one step. Maybe even a bigger step is getting kids active instead of just sitting in front of the television or computer.

GUPTA: That's right. When you think about childhood obesity, a lot of things have changed, which is part of the reason the numbers have grown so much. But there are certainly activities. You can find these schools, recommend them in Web sites. U.S. surgeon generals' Web site recommends the following ones for example. But getting the family together to do things together is the key, and they're are all sorts of different recommendations.

But adults, for example, you and I talked about the fact that 30 minutes a day is what adults should strive for. Children, 18 and younger, 60 minutes a day of hardcore activities. That doesn't mean playing video games or sitting in front of the television, or in this case drinking soda pop, but actual being out there doing things.

KAGAN: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thank you.

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