Schwarzenegger urges that soda and junk food be banned from public schools

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...DGT7AQRRK1.DTL

EDITORIAL
Banning junk food

Tuesday, January 18, 2005



GOV. ARNOLD Schwarzenegger and the California Legislature should be
able to agree on at least one thing: getting rid of junk food in the
schools.

Schwarzenegger last week criticized the Legislature for sending him a
bill last year that he vetoed because it didn't go far enough. In a
meeting with The Chronicle editorial board, he said the bill would have
required schools to label junk foods, instead of eliminating them
altogether. He implied the bill wasn't tougher because legislators were
afraid to take on a food industry that promotes unhealthy products.

"If you want to get rid of junk food, just pass a law that says you are
not going to have any junk food in the schools ... because it is
destroying our kids," he said. Such a law should tell schools "you are
going to have to sell vegetables and fresh milk and water, no more
Coca-Cola."

Schwarzenegger seems to be ahead of the Legislature on this issue. In
2003, for example, the Legislature approved a bill eliminating
sugar-laden sodas from school vending machines -- but only from
elementary and middle schools, not high schools, where most unhealthy
drinks are peddled.

Schwarzenegger said when he was head of the President's Council on
Physical Fitness and Sports 15 years ago, he found that almost every
school he visited had vending machines filled with sodas and candy, or
sold unhealthy foods such as doughnuts.

He said attempts to eliminate these products would elicit protests from
school officials who "will scream 'We're getting money from Coca-Cola
for our sports programs.' " They should be told, he said, to "find the
money somewhere else."

Schwarzenegger's advocacy of a comprehensive ban on junk food in
schools should give a boost to lawmakers such as Sens. Gloria Romero,
D-Los Angeles, and Martha Escutia, D-Whittier, who have encountered
industry resistance to even the most modest proposals to regulate food
in school.

The governor and legislators should work together in crafting
legislation that will put California at the forefront of promoting
healthier eating habits, beginning in our schools.

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Instead, in NYC, they have a mayor who made a contract with Snapple, a
sugar-water distributor.

I like the gubernator's way, better.