School ban on sugary drinks shows little effect

[Shogun]

By Amy Norton

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Policies that rid Maine high schools of sugary drinks seem to have had little impact on teenagers' overall intake of sugar-laden beverages, according to a new study.

The study compared four high schools that eliminated soda and other sugar-sweetened drinks from cafeterias and vending machines with three schools that did not take such measures.

Researchers found that over one school year, students in both groups of schools cut down on their average daily intake of sugary drinks -- but there was no evidence that the school soda bans led to greater reductions.

The reasons for the findings are not clear, and the study does not mean that getting sugar-laden drinks out of schools is a waste of time, according to the researchers.

Lead researcher Dr. Janet E. Whatley Blum said she would not conclude that such school policies are "ineffective" based on these findings.

Students' consumption of sweet drinks did go down, she told Reuters Health; the study just failed to find a statistically significant difference between schools that cut back on sweetened beverages and those that did not.

Several limitations of the study might help explain the finding, noted Blum, an associate professor at the University of Southern Maine, in Gorham.

One is that students were followed for only nine months, which might not be a long enough period to see substantial effects. Another is that the study included only high schools; similar policies in elementary and middle schools might be more effective since younger children have less freedom to buy sugary treats on their own.

The study, published in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, included four Maine high schools that had banned the sale of sugar-sweetened drinks, with the exception of one school that allowed sports drinks to remain in vending machines.

The schools replaced these beverages by selling more milk, water and fruit juice.

Blum's team surveyed 235 students about their daily intake of sugary drinks at two time points: the spring before the school policies took hold and nine months after they went into effect. The researchers gave the same survey to 221 students at high schools that kept selling soda and other sugar-added drinks.

On average, the study found, students at both groups of schools curbed their intake of sugary beverages to a similar degree over the school year.

According to Blum, keeping such drinks out of teenagers' reach during school hours may not be enough.

"School appears to be just one source of sugar-sweetened beverages for youth," she said, "and it may be that an educational component...is needed to have an effect on consumption from sources other than school."

SOURCE: Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, November/December 2008.

School ban on sugary drinks shows little effect | Health | Reuters

 

[Gem]

There's a shocker. I loved this line...

"School appears to be just one source of sugar-sweetened beverages for youth,"

NO!!!! YOU DON'T SAY!!!!!! You mean kids who have been taught bad eating habits may continue those habits outside of the school??!?!?! And offering nutritious food at school doesn't stop that??!? IT JUST CAN'T BE!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Shogun]

If I may draw a connection, Gem.. This is my point in the last thread: Parents are more important than trying to regulate options for kids who don't have these problems. Games or Sugary drinks are not unique in their ability to be partaken by kids who may abuse them. It's not the soda or games at fault but the parents who would rather point a finger than act like a parent.


Now, if only we had Andrew here to give us a lecture on another subject that he doesn't know a goddamn thing about....

 

[bk1983]

You mean the government cannot protect us from ourselves??

Damn, I was waiting till they started regulating how much beef

you can eat every week, you know that way they can protect us

from getting heart disease.

 

[Gem]

While I appreciate what you are saying - I think that in the last thread you missed the point that I was trying to make...I can't speak for Andrew.

My point is not that parents are not the vital link in these cases: healthy eating, healthy habits...

But, in the case of online entertainment...that games, online interaction, etc. is, in my opinion - more engaging in many ways...then games in the past were. You, of course, are free to disagree...but I could never get to know Mario and Luigi. Never could find out where they were from, what music they liked, never email them photos of me and get photos of them back...could never interact with my games the way my students can now interact with the people they meet online.

Parents are the ones who need to be monitoring their children - whether it be what they are eating or what they are doing online. I agree. I just think that as games and online communication becomes easier and more accessible...it also becomes a bit more addictive...requiring parents (many of whom still think of games as they used to be) to be more vigilant.

Also note: I am not calling for the banning of any game, or any online communication. It isn't World of Warcraft's fault that stupid kids with stupid parents behave stupidly. It isn't the fault of the online webcast service that a troubled kid took his life using their product as a communication vehicle. It isn't Coca-Cola's fault that chubby kids like their drink and it makes them chubbier...

 

[Odd1_Out]

I say we bring back bullying. I'm being mildly sarcastic, but only mildly. We've become way too protective of our children, and its doing them more harm than good.

When I was younger, I used to make fun of the fat kids all the time... and as a result MANY of them ended up losing weight... because they realized that was the only way the other kids and I would stop making fun of them for being fat. Its called peer pressure, and its not always a bad thing.

Of course, you have to stop bullying once it reaches the point of physical violence. But I always felt verbal abuse from my peers was very constructive. Having to deal with insults builds stronger people, and coming up with them encourages creativity. Its a win-win situation across the board.

 

[Caligirl]

By Amy Norton

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Policies that rid Maine high schools of sugary drinks seem to have had little impact on teenagers' overall intake of sugar-laden beverages, according to a new study.

The study compared four high schools that eliminated soda and other sugar-sweetened drinks from cafeterias and vending machines with three schools that did not take such measures.

Researchers found that over one school year, students in both groups of schools cut down on their average daily intake of sugary drinks -- but there was no evidence that the school soda bans led to greater reductions.

The reasons for the findings are not clear, and the study does not mean that getting sugar-laden drinks out of schools is a waste of time, according to the researchers.

Lead researcher Dr. Janet E. Whatley Blum said she would not conclude that such school policies are "ineffective" based on these findings.

Students' consumption of sweet drinks did go down, she told Reuters Health; the study just failed to find a statistically significant difference between schools that cut back on sweetened beverages and those that did not.

Several limitations of the study might help explain the finding, noted Blum, an associate professor at the University of Southern Maine, in Gorham.

One is that students were followed for only nine months, which might not be a long enough period to see substantial effects. Another is that the study included only high schools; similar policies in elementary and middle schools might be more effective since younger children have less freedom to buy sugary treats on their own.

The study, published in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, included four Maine high schools that had banned the sale of sugar-sweetened drinks, with the exception of one school that allowed sports drinks to remain in vending machines.

The schools replaced these beverages by selling more milk, water and fruit juice.

Blum's team surveyed 235 students about their daily intake of sugary drinks at two time points: the spring before the school policies took hold and nine months after they went into effect. The researchers gave the same survey to 221 students at high schools that kept selling soda and other sugar-added drinks.

On average, the study found, students at both groups of schools curbed their intake of sugary beverages to a similar degree over the school year.

According to Blum, keeping such drinks out of teenagers' reach during school hours may not be enough.

"School appears to be just one source of sugar-sweetened beverages for youth," she said, "and it may be that an educational component...is needed to have an effect on consumption from sources other than school."

SOURCE: Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, November/December 2008.

School ban on sugary drinks shows little effect | Health | Reuters

There are a group of parents at my school who are presumably well - intentioned but who piss the hell out of me by providing sugar to the classroom at any opportunity.

If the school were to remove one source of sugar this small group of parents would react "in sympathy" to the kids by bringing in extra sweets.

this can't explain the high school study ( I doubt parents do that in high school!) but I just wanted to vent. Both my kids were eating lollipops when I picked them up today. there is no reason to have lollipops today, it is not thanksgiving, it is not halloween, it is not a birthday, Oh I forgot it's a friday. <rolleyes> they get treats every day, makes me mad.

 

[Shogun]

With all due respect, Gen, I have to still disagree about the nature of online games. millions of xbox live users throw some dirt in that soup sincethey have just as much ability to interact as mmorpg players get. Google Ronna Jaffe and see if you can find a few parallels in a similar kind of demonization.

 

[auditor0007]

Sugar ain't the problem folks. Doctors led us down the wrong path beginning in the 70's. They told us to stop eating all the fats and sugar, and they told us how important it was to eat low fat foods. What happened? We started eating less meat and more carbs, not just a few more carbs but a whole lot more carbs. Carbs are an essential part of our diet. When you consume carbs, they turn to sugar and become a great source of energy. However, if you eat too many carbs, you end up with excess sugar which then turns to fat.

So, while we inadvertantly increased our sugar intake, we now worry about soda. It's the carbs that are the problem. On top of this, over the last 25 years, school requirements for physical education have been reduced to the point of being nearly non-existent. When I was in school, we had phys ed every single day. We were forced to excercise and burn off calories. Now, with these kids eating all these carbs that turn to sugar and then to fat, we don't even make them excercise. So guess what? We've got a bunch of fat kids who are turning into fat adults. And along with that, many of them are becoming diabetic. That is why, over the last 25 years, the percentage of people with type 2 diabetes has doubled.

I have never eaten anything fat free intentionally, nor have I ever drank a diet drink intentionally. I've always eaten decent amounts of protein. My kids get a balanced diet with fruits, vegetables, carbs, and meat or fish, every day. Im 45, 5'7", 133 lbs. On average, I eat 2500 calories per day. When I was in high school, I ate 6000 calories per day. My kids eat a lot, but they are like me, fairly thin. They run cross country and track, wrestle and play basketball.

If we want to become healthy as a nation again, all we need to do is cut back on the carbs, start feeding our kids balanced meals, and make sure they excercise. Requires our schools to provide physical education to all every single day. If kids learn to eat healthy and stay active, they will carry that into adulthood. We can reduce our obesity problem, and the diabetes epidemic can be reversed. All it will take is some common sense.

 

[Andrew2382]

If I may draw a connection, Gem.. This is my point in the last thread: Parents are more important than trying to regulate options for kids who don't have these problems. Games or Sugary drinks are not unique in their ability to be partaken by kids who may abuse them. It's not the soda or games at fault but the parents who would rather point a finger than act like a parent.


Now, if only we had Andrew here to give us a lecture on another subject that he doesn't know a goddamn thing about....

wow, what do you know another stupid comment.

I never once said it was the game makers fault that the kids are addicted and play the shit 24//7 and become a troll in their house like you. It's the parents fault, don't go on the rag because your parents failed with you and all you wanna do is play video games from the time you get home till you go to sleep. I agree with you, it is 100% on the parents.

However like I said before, a lot of parents don't know what these video games are all about, like I said before parents who didn't play video games in their time because they actually went outside and enjoyed life don't know what type of games their kids get into. Not to say it still isn't their fault, it's just a lack of education...something you can relate to.

Yes, these games are perfectly fine, I mean it's not like there are thousands upon thousands of articles with horror stories about divorces, failing grades, and withdrawl of social activites due to the video games.

BBC NEWS | dot.life | A blog about technology from BBC News | 'Addicted' to Warcraft?

World of Warcraft release revives concern over games addiction - Telegraph

Expert: 40 Percent of World of Warcraft Players Addicted | Tom's Games

If you're suffering from dry eyes, headaches, back aches, erratic sleep patterns, it may be more than just your average hangover: according to Dr. Maressa Orzack, you could be suffering from video and computer game addiction. A clinical psychologist, Orzack is founder and coordinator of Computer Addiction Services at McLean Hospital in Newton, Mass., and is also an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School. Computer Addiction Services is one of the few outpatient clinics in the U.S. that provides specific treatment for game addiction.

And with millions of gamers hooked on mega-popular massively multiplayer online role playing games (MMORPGs), she believes the problem is growing rapidly. In fact, Orzack says as much as 40 percent of World of Warcraft players are addicted to the game.


See what you fail to understand is that you try to defend these type of games because you are passionte about it because you play it 24/7. Which is fine, knock yourself out if thats what you want to do. However, a parent who was educated and knew about this stuff would either

A- restrict the play time your child can play (which Blizzard has finally implemented, however most parents don't use)
b- Don't let their kids play these type of games.

Xbox Live is bad too, however not nearly as bad.

All your points you made before like a level cap and people who aren't leveling aren't playing the game is just idiotic. You do realize there are services out there where you pay a company to level your toon for you right? They do this because like I said before the game starts at the level cap!

There is a term called power leveling, where people play non-stop hours at a time so they can hit the level cap as soon as possible. Why do they do this? The game starts when you hit the max level. These type of games have no ending. Usually when you complete a game...ie Xbox, Nintendo whatever the console may be and you see the credits, your desire to play it diminishes a little. These games have no ending so the desire never fades hence an "addiction" builds. This isn't rocket science, you can argue it all you want, you are wrong.


Gem-

I agree 100% with what you said, it's not the video game makers fault. As you said before when you played Mario Brothers, there was no interaction with other player like there is today.

 

[Shogun]

of course you agree with me that it's the parent's fault; I'm smarter than you. But, I'll say it again, you are nothing more than one more in a long line of Rhonna Jaffes, Pat Pullings, Tipper Gores and Jack Thompson. You let your ignorant knee jerk reactions leap ahead of what hindsight will convey in some mad dash to believe the first talking head that tells you that it's someone else's fault that your kid is a fucking retard. So far, your sky is falling bullshit has nil affect on the millions of kids who have played games since pac man made arcades lucrative.

 

[Andrew2382]

of course you agree with me that it's the parent's fault; I'm smarter than you. But, I'll say it again, you are nothing more than one more in a long line of Rhonna Jaffes, Pat Pullings, Tipper Gores and Jack Thompson. You let your ignorant knee jerk reactions leap ahead of what hindsight will convey in some mad dash to believe the first talking head that tells you that it's someone else's fault that your kid is a fucking retard. So far, your sky is falling bullshit has nil affect on the millions of kids who have played games since pac man made arcades lucrative.

wow man, 9 minutes and a response. You live on this fucking board don't you? What are you doing, alt tabbing every few minutes and checking the board to see which poster you think you can "pwn" next.

I never said that it wasn't the parent's fault e-thug. However, you can never refute one fucking point I make because you are wrong. Nice lvl cap rebuttal dick. All you do is come up with off topic insults that have no meaning.

Also, comparing pac man to WoW, is fucking stupid. Sorry, I haven't heard as many stories of people playing Pac man for 12-18 hours a day everyday. Never hard of, I divorced my husband because of Pac man, I failed my class because of Pacman. Please show me those stories, cause I can probably show you dozens if not hundreds of WoW horror stories. Apparently, you would be a prime example of one. I have nothing against games, I play them from time to time just not an addicted freak like you who has no social life. Tell me something, whats the longest you have ever played that game in a single day? Your longest grind...12 hours?
15? Be honest

 

[Shogun]

no, comparing pacman to wow is not stupid since the same goddamn excuses by the same types of ignorant motherfuckers were have been used with both. I hate to break it to you but arcades were pretty fucking popular back in the day. Gosh, slick, kids even went so far as to play and play and play the games until they beat a fucking game by achieving a high score! WOW! If only it were the case that kids, who grew up just fine, cut themselves off the pacman every 15 fucking minutes. Hell, if ONLY every nintendo game had an automatic cuttoff switch like, uh, super mario brothers. Because, uh, no ked ever stayed up all night playing THAT!




hey, go ahead and let your ignorant opinions speak for you on a subject it's painfully obvious you know nothing about, dude. It's cool Like I said, in 15 years you'll be as much of a laughing stock as Geraldo and his satanic coven in the rock music hype.

 

[Shogun]

MAAADNESS!

 

[Andrew2382]

it's amazing you can never refute any point I make.

This is what you sound like.

PACMAN AND WoW ARE BOTH VIDEO GAMES YOU LOSE I WIN

Still waiting on the stories of kids failing classes because of Pacman, divorces happening because of Pacman, relationships breaking apart because of Pacman, suicide over relationships that happened during pacman game time

You might want to grab a snickers kid, you might be searching a while.

Shawn Woolley - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A week before the suicide he had quit his pizza parlour job in order to play upwards of 12 hours a day, and bought a rifle. On Thanksgiving day, 2001-11-22, Woolley's mother, Elizabeth, went to his rented apartment to bring him to the annual family gathering, so he would not be alone during the holiday. She knocked on the door with no response, then tried to open the door but the chain lock was connected. She reports there was a foul smell coming from the room. After going to her residence to get a crowbar and a hammer, she forced the chain off and entered the apartment where she found her son slouched in his computer chair dead. He had shot himself while playing "Everquest" at his computer.


Yup, can't tell you how many times I have heard the same story of someone killing themselves over a fictional relationship they developed playing pacman. Then again, Ms. Pacman is a real whore I guess

 

[Shogun]

I am LITERALLY showing you similar images of people playing pacman vs wow and IT IS THE EXACT SAME SCENE, stupid..

Here.. here's another old school motherfucker who didn't just play for a healthy five minutes.. Say, dickface.. what does his shirt say?

 

[Shogun]

coin shortage
the japanese company taito is a struggling manufacturer
of pachinko games (players drop balls down into a colourful
playfield and try to direct them into holes for points).
in 1978 they release their first videogame 'space invaders'.
layers are charged with protecting the planet from relentless
hoards of aliens marching down the screen, with just a
single-shot moving gun and four shot-blocking bunkers
as protection. the more aliens you shoot, the faster they move,
accompanied by an ominous, thudding marching sound.
the display is black and white, with screen overlays giving the
appearance of colour. upon release it practically causes riots
across japan, as well as being responsible for a nation-wide
coin shortage. to cash in on the craze, shopowners clear out
their merchandise and set up all -'space invader' arcades overnight.
midway, licensing the game, soon finds itself in possession of the
biggest arcade videogame hit in america up to that point.
the game transcends the regular videogame ghetto of pool halls
and bars, popping up in department stores, restaurants and other
mainstream venues.
the history of video games : from &#145;pong&#146; to &#145;pac-man&#146;

 

[Andrew2382]

still waiting on the stories of how pacman caused divorces and suicides and depressions etc...

 

[Shogun]

it's cool, dude.. you can pick yourself up off the ground and dust off your clothes.. I won't kick you in the teeth anymore with pictures and facts. I've proven my point. enjoy.

 

[Andrew2382]

lol, you post pictures of someone playing a game and that proves your point? Apparently the only teeth missing are probably yours from all the gamers you give blows jobs too.

You haven't proven anything other then you can't beat me in a fucking arguement. Show me where pacman and those arcade games from the 70's caused addictions that led to divorces, failed classes, withdrawl from social activites, suicide etc.. You can't post one. I can google something and probably fine dozens if not hundreds. Come on tough guy, I am waiting. Keep trying to compare games from the 70's to todays genre of games. Keep trying

Come on man, you never answered my question before, whats the loongest grind on WoW you have done. Man up and admit it. 12, 15 hours straight?