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Increasing Access to Healthy Drinks and Reducing Access to Sugary Drinks

Why Focus on Beverages?
Engaging Restaurant Chains to Remove Sugary Beverages from Kids' Menus
Communities Putting Prevention to Work Grant Focuses on Healthy Beverages
Community Transformation Grant Focuses on Four Strategic Directions Including Sugary Drinks
CA Project LEAN Blog: California's Sugary Drink Tax Proposal Has Not Yet Fizzled
California Project LEAN's Beverage Standards
22 Packets of Sugar - Rethink Your Drink Fact Sheets (English/Spanish)
Case Studies: Eliminating Electrolyte Replacement Beverages in California Public Schools
Water in Schools
Resources
Sugar Sweetend Beverage Policies
Nutrition and Physical Activity Policies

Why Focus on Beverages?
Sugary drinks are the single largest source of calories in the American diet. Greater sugary beverage consumption is associated with weight gain, obesity, and diabetes. The average person in the U.S. drank 45 gallons of sugary drinks in 2009. Increasing access to more healthful beverages is important for reducing sugary drink consumption.

Sugar-sweetened beverage consumption is highest among groups that are at greatest risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes. In California, 62 percent of adolescents ages 12-17 and 41 percent of children ages 2-11 drink at least one soda or other sweetened beverage every day. For children who daily drink one or more sugary beverages have a 55% increased chance of being overweight or obese. The prevalence of overweight and obesity is higher among California adolescents who drink sugar-sweetened beverages than those who don’t.

While traditional carbonated drinks such as soda are losing market share, beverages like sports drinks, energy drinks, and sweetened waters and teas are showing significant growth in the marketplace. In a 2008 representative sample of public high schools in California, 8 of the 10 top beverages offered for sale in California schools were sugar-added electrolyte replacement beverages.

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Engaging Restaurant Chains to Remove Sugary Beverages from Kids' Menus
Childhood obesity is a serious health problem that has adverse and long-lasting consequences for individuals, families, and communities. Project LEAN was one among the more than 165 advocacy groups and academic experts that sent letters to the top restaurant chains asking them to take soda and other sugary drinks off their kids’ menus. With one in three children overweight or obese, it no longer makes sense to include sugary beverages in restaurant meals for young children. Letter

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Communities Putting Prevention to Work Grant Focuses on Healthy Beverages
Case Study: Implementing Healthy Nutrition Guidelines for Vending Machines in the County of Los Angeles Government

In February of 2010, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) secured a two-year Communities Putting Prevention to Work (CPPW) grant from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) to address obesity prevention. California Project LEAN served as the lead on this grant for the nutrition initiative, which focused on increasing access to healthy beverages and limiting access to sugary drinks.

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Community Transformation Grant Focuses on Four Strategic Directions Including Sugary Drinks
CA4Health - Bringing Community Transformation to Life in Rural California

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CA Project LEAN Blog: California's Sugary Drink Tax Proposal Has Not Yet Fizzled
http://www.phi.org/news-events/483/californias-sugary-drink-tax-proposal-has-not-yet-fizzled

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California Project LEAN's Beverage Standards

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22 Packets of Sugar - ReThink Your Drink Factsheets (English/Spanish)

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Case Studies
Highlights from Califonia school districts where electrolyte replacement beverages were replaced with water.
Earlimart School District - Eliminating Electrolyte Replacement Beverages
Eliminating Electrolyte Replacement Beverages in California Public Schools

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Water in Schools
According to a recent survey at least 40 percent of responding school districts reported not having access to free drinking water for students. In response to this statistic and the need to promote healthy beverage options in schools, Governor Schwarzenegger sponsored and signed into law SB 1413 in 2010 which requires schools to make free, fresh drinking water available to students during meals.

California Food Policy Advocates, with funding from the California Department of Public Health’s former California Obesity Prevention Program created a web-based tool kit for educators, school districts and advocates to help comply with the new law.

Water Woes: Recommendations for Creating Healthier School Environments
This policy brief describes the school water situation in the North Coast region of California. The lack of appealing or free water sources on these campuses poses a barrier to students who want to drink more water and fewer sugar-sweetened beverages.

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Resources