A new study finds that school-going children tend to consume more soda and fast food when vending machines are removed from their school campus.
Of late, the increasing consumption of soda and fast food drinks among school-going children has caused serious concerns, especially in the United States. A new study by researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago looked to see what effect removal of vending machines from school campuses had on the eating and drinking habits of children.
For the study, they analyzed student data from the National Youth Physical Activity and Nutrition Study with state-level data on soda taxes, restaurant taxes, and laws governing the sale of soda in schools in 2010. The study included 8,245 high school students in 27 states.
Researchers noted that 23 percent of students reported drinking at least one soda per day if they had access to vending machines in schools, compared to 28 percent of students who did not have access. However, this observation was made only in states where soda taxes were lower and in schools where children had access to buying a soda from the school cafeteria.
Researchers also found that children tended to eat more fast food when vending machines were removed from their schools, especially in states where fast food taxes were lower.
"The study shows that there may be unintended effects if you only make small-scale changes. When more comprehensive changes were implemented, there were no unintended effects," said Daniel Taber, lead author and a former researcher at UIC's Institute for Health Research and Policy, in a press statement.
The study authors clarified that this didn't mean that schools should not take nutrition matters into their hands and implement policies that will benefit the students. In fact, they should encourage environments where kids have less access to high-fat, high-calorie foods and beverages from other sources.
"Policy changes really need to be comprehensive and not just focused on one item such as regular soda or one location such as cafeterias," said Jamie Chriqui, a study coauthor and senior research scientist at UIC's Institute for Health Research and Policy.
The study was supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation through its Bridging the Gap program and the National Institutes of Health. Findings were published online in the journal PLOS ONE.
