San Francisco Bans Soda in Vending Machines

Original Post: AOL Health

By Catherine Donaldson-Evans Jul 9th 2010 12:06PM

The city of San Francisco has made good on its promise to ban sodas and other sugar-sweetened drinks from public-property vending machines, replacing them with diet drinks and soy milk.

The executive order, signed by Mayor Gavin Newsom months ago as part of his battle against the obesity epidemic, went into effect this week, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

"There's a direct link between what people eat and drink and the obesity and health care crises in this country," mayoral spokesman Tony Winnicker told the paper.

Eliminated from soda machines on city grounds: sodas, juice with added sweeteners, sports beverages and water with artificial flavors. Drinks made with 100 percent fruit or vegetable juice will stay. Soy and rice milk will be added.

Newsom says people who drink at least a can of soda a day are 27 percent more likely to be obese. His war on the epidemic mirrors the efforts of First Lady Michelle Obama to fight the problem among children.

One nutritionist said San Francisco's move is unlikely to have any great impact, however.

"I kind of look at that approach as trying to bring all the cows in after they've already escaped from the barn," Dr. Douglas Husbands, who has a nutrition and wellness practice in northern California, told AOL Health. "I don't think that's really effective."

Husbands said people who crave sodas and artificially sweetened drinks will just go somewhere else to buy them if they can't get them on public property in San Francisco.

"It will be a minor inconvenience," he said. "If they want a junk food fix, they're going to look for it elsewhere. ... And the people who are trying to plan out healthy snacks generally don't go to vending machines anyway."

A greater public health benefit, Husbands believes, would be a reduction in exposure to ads for diet drugs and obesity-related health problems as they help create an illusion that there are easy solutions to being overweight.

He'd also like to see an increase in public service announcements about the importance of eating enough fruits and vegetables.