Taxing Soft Drinks And Restricting Access To Vending Machines To Curb Child Obesity

Abstract

One of the largest drivers of the current obesity epidemic is thought to be excessive consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages. Some have proposed vending machine restrictions and taxing soft drinks to curb children's consumption of soft drinks; to a large extent, these policies have not been evaluated empirically. We examine these policies using two nationally representative data sets and find no evidence that, as currently practiced, either is effective at reducing children's weight. We conclude by outlining changes that may increase their effectiveness, such as implementing comprehensive restrictions on access to soft drinks in schools and imposing higher tax rates than are currently in place in many jurisdictions.

Impact of competitive foods in public schools on child nutrition: effects on adolescent obesity in the United States an integrative systematic literature review

“…Fletcher et al [59, p. 1064], discovered that ‘neither vending machine restrictions nor soft drink taxes will lead to noticeable weight reduction in children’, noting that according to their analysis, adolescents consumed just as many soft drinks in schools with vending machine restrictions as in schools without restrictions. And Hartstein et al [44], determined that when all schools in their intervention were included, there were no significant change in number of Kilocalories sold per student between week 1 and week 6.…”

“…Nanney et al [47] details the varying levels of obesity across the country in various states and regions and any relevance it has on nutrition, physical activity, and education policies within schools. Fletcher et al [59] examined the effects of soft drink taxes on weight among children, change in BMI, obesity prevalence, or soft drink calorie consumption.…”

“…Briefel et al [63], set out to test the hypothesis that children would compensate for eating fewer SSB’s and low-nutrient, energy dense foods at school by consuming more of these items outside of school. Other cross-sectional analyzes examined data on Kcalorie consumption of competitive foods in schools before and after policy implementation or beverage tax imposed [51,57,59]. Fox et al [49,58], examined associations between adolescent’s weight status and school food environments, and amount of Kcalories consumed by students from low-nutrient, energy-dense foods attained in school.…”

“…Studies which correlated associations between availability, consumption patterns, and student’s BMI-related outcomes were performed by [14,26,49,50,59,60]. Whereas other studies considered the associations between a variety of competitive food sources (vending machines, a la carte, school store, snack bars) in schools with consumption of low nutrient, energy-dense foods [23,55,56,58,63].…”

“…Taber et al [54], analyzed state school meal laws and their associations with weight status in adolescents. Fletcher et al [59], and Levy & Friend [62], also considered effects on adding SSB taxes to predict daily Kcalorie reductions in adolescents.…”