News Releases
Soft Drinks and Obesity
American Beverage Association Responds to Institute of Medicine's Progress Report on Childhood Obesity
Contact:
Tracey Halliday
(202) 463-6718
WASHINGTON—The American Beverage Association (ABA) and its member companies today were cited for their leadership efforts and innovations aimed at positively impacting childhood obesity in the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) report, Progress in Preventing Childhood Obesity: How Do We Measure Up? The report, focusing on the progress made by obesity prevention initiatives in the United States since the release of the IOM’s 2005 report, emphasizes a call to action for key stakeholders and sectors to lead and commit to childhood obesity prevention, evaluate policies and programs, and disseminate promising practices.
The American Beverage Association is proud to be at the forefront of industry in making progress on childhood obesity with its groundbreaking School Beverage Guidelines established this past May in collaboration with the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, which is a joint venture of the American Heart Association and the William J. Clinton Foundation. The IOM report also cited ABA member companies for their efforts to provide more healthy beverage products, advertise healthy products to young children and form public-private partnerships aimed at addressing childhood obesity.
“The nation’s beverage companies are the industry leaders on school wellness, teaming with the Alliance for a Healthier Generation to develop new School Beverage Guidelines that are part of a broader effort to teach children the importance of balanced diet and exercise,” said Susan K. Neely, president and chief executive officer of the American Beverage Association. “The guidelines take a meaningful approach to school wellness that will have real impact on the lives of children. Since the release of the 2005 IOM report, the beverage industry has stepped up to take substantive action in our schools.”
The School Beverage Guidelines remove full-calorie soft drinks from schools and provide America’s students with a broad range of lower-calorie, nutritious, smaller-portion beverage choices. The new guidelines, which apply to all beverages sold at school during the regular and extended school day, serve as the beverage component of the Alliance for a Healthier Generation’s Healthy Schools Program.
The IOM report calls on all of industry to support strong evaluation components for its initiatives and programs, allowing public health experts to more readily assess their impact on childhood obesity. The IOM report singled out the School Beverage Guidelines as an example of an effective evaluation component that must accompany any program, stating that its “objectives are both quantifiable and measurable, thus making it feasible to track progress.”
The need for more physical education and regular physical activity in schools is also mentioned throughout the report. In tackling school wellness, the Alliance for a Healthier Generation’s Healthy Schools Program is developing an overall program for schools that incorporates physical activity programs along with nutrition education. In addition, ABA member companies support a variety of programs to encourage active lifestyles for young people.
“Our industry is concerned about the overall health and well-being of our children, which is why our companies are so proactive on this issue.” added Neely. “It is why we have created a wide variety of nutritious and lower-calorie products that support healthy lifestyles, developed beverage guidelines for our schools and supported greater physical activity for our children.”
Neely praised the comprehensive approach of the IOM report. ABA, along with many scientists, has long maintained that a complex issue like obesity cannot be addressed by tackling one particular food or factor. By looking at the role demographics, schools, industry, government, communities and families play in our children’s lives, the IOM is pursuing comprehensive solutions that will have a meaningful impact.
“This report once again makes it clear that we all must work together—schools, families, communities, industry and government—to solve the obesity problem,” Neely said. “We in the beverage industry are aggressively working to do our part by providing schools with the appropriate beverages in the appropriate portion sizes for all students.”
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The American Beverage Association is the trade association representing the broad spectrum of companies that manufacture and distribute non-alcoholic beverages in the United States.