Education |

Colorado board to vote on ending diet-soda ban in high schools

A proposal to lift the seven-year ban on diet sodas in Colorado’s high schools would feed a variety of health problems among the state’s school kids, including obesity and tooth decay, health advocates say.

Several groups, including the Colorado PTA, have lined up against the idea, saying it would open school doors to bad health habits and soda companies offering corporate sponsorships to cash-starved school districts.

“Despite what the soda industry is trying to convince us of, we all know that any sort of soda, diet or regular, is absolutely terrible for any of us to drink and especially for kids,” Carrie Godes, special projects coordinator for Garfield County Public Health, wrote to the State Board of Education in objection to the proposal. “I wish that our school had the willpower to resist the temptation, but with funding for schools a constant problem, the ability to bring in revenue from vending operations is too great.”

The state board will consider the change Wednesday at its meeting in Grand Junction. If approved, it would take effect by the 2017-18 school year.

It’s all part of an effort to realign Colorado’s Healthy Beverage Policy with new federal rules and to streamline regulations. State officials say even if the proposal is approved, local school districts can implement their own, more restrictive beverage policies if they choose.

That would keep Colorado as a leader in providing healthy drinks for students, said Brehan Riley, director of the Office of School Nutrition for the Colorado Department of Education.

“Local communities, through the input from residents, might even be more restrictive,” Riley said. “We might see even more health and wellness issues come to the forefront.”

Some Colorado school districts support the change, saying it is hard to enforce two separate beverage policies, especially after federal Smart Snacks in School standards were being developed over the past two years, Riley said. The new federal rules became official just two weeks ago.

“We did have comments from school districts that it was difficult to understand two different policies that were in place,” she said. “They let us know it was confusing.”

It is also the practice of the Colorado Department of Education to rewrite its rules every three years to cut down on redundancy, Riley said.

Portions of Colorado’s Beverage Policy would remain intact, including restricting regular soda and other beverages during extracurricular activities. Sodas are not allowed in middle or elementary schools.

The heads of the Colorado Association of School Boards, Colorado Association of School Executives and the Colorado Boards of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) Association agree with the proposal and say school districts “would no longer be required to navigate overlapping but diverse federal and state requirements in this area.”

But health advocates say federal restrictions against sodas laced with artificial sweeteners and salty foods are too weak by Colorado’s current standards. Adopting those federal rules, which allow drinks that have 60 calories or less per 12 ounces, could tarnish the state’s reputation as being one of the country’s healthiest, they add.

“We respectfully encourage the board … to aim higher than the federal standards, which in their current form allow such products as Flaming Hot Cheetos,”  Wyatt Hornsby, campaign director for Delta Dental of Colorado Foundation, wrote in a letter to the state board.

Colorado’s Healthy Beverage policy, which took effect in 2009 when there were no federal guidelines, details the type, size and calorie counts of drinks allowed in schools. The Smart Snacks standard were first approved in 2014 as part of the 2010 Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act and finalized last month.

“Since 2009, Colorado has been a leader in the nation when it comes to a healthy beverage policy,” added Leslie Levine, technical assistance and research manager for the advocacy group Livewell Colorado. “Why would we roll back what Colorado has already done?”

Levine said the proposal is especially confusing because Colorado recently banned all soda, flavored milks and sport drinks and severely restricted fruit juices in the state’s preschools.

Health groups cite studies that say diet sodas, although calorie-free, are acidic and can erode teeth. The marketing by soda companies to young teens in school also would contribute to the country’s obesity epidemic, Hornsby said.

“Their strategy is cradle to the grave,” he said, “and this would be wonderful marketing opportunity for them.”