Soda in schools threatens oral health, dentist tells IOM committee
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Posted March 1, 2006 |
By Craig Palmer Irvine, Calif.—Carbonated beverages "pose a significant threat to the overall oral health of children and teens" and have no place in school, Maine dentist Dr. Jonathan D. Shenkin told a school nutrition study panel. He testified on school nutrition standards in Maine at the invitation of the National Academy Sciences Institute of Medicine.
"It is without a doubt that the availability of carbonated beverages should be ended within all public schools and all grade levels in the United States," he said at an IOM committee field hearing on nutrition standards for foods in schools. "This is based on the fact that carbonated beverages now comprise a significant amount of the total added sugars in the diets of adolescents and have no nutritional value.
"Soft drinks, including diet soft drinks, have large quantities of caffeine, which is an unnecessary stimulant in children's diets," Dr. Shenkin testified. "The American Dental Association has taken significant efforts to try to educate the public about the dangers of exclusive soft drink contracts and pervasive soft drink marketing. I hope you take this one step further by ridding our schools of this unnecessary product."
The Association will submit comments to the IOM for the report due this fall on nutrition standards for foods in schools  . Dr. Shenkin testified as a member of the Maine Commission to Study Public Health and co-chair of the subcommittee on children, nutrition and schools. He is a private practice dentist in Bangor, assistant clinical professor of health policy at Boston University's Goldman School of Dental Medicine and a consultant to the ADA on nutrition and community issues.
ADA online information sources include the following:
The IOM established a committee to review and make recommendations on appropriate nutritional standards for the availability, sale, content and consumption of foods at school, with attention given to foods offered in competition with federally-reimbursed meals and snacks. The study is supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A report is due by October.
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