Childhood obesity and consumption of fizzy drinks: Commercial interests have important role

doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7456.54-b

BMJ 2004;329:54 (3 July), doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7456.54-b

Letter

Childhood obesity and consumption of fizzy drinks

Commercial interests have important role

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Editor—The study by James et al on preventing childhoodobesity by reducing the consumption of carbonated drinks underscoresclinical intuition about why children are more obese these days.¹

Wearing my hat of school governor, I have been trying to introducea healthy eating policy to our local school. It was comparativelyeasy to change the catering contract to a company that guaranteesto use fresh vegetables, low salt, less fat, etc, but it wasmuch more difficult to influence the policy on soft drinks machines.The reason: the machines are a critical source of income fora cash strapped school that has seen its budget squeezed inreal terms year on year. Sales from vending machines are nowused to pay for books and equipment—and I suspect it won'tbe long before the school advertises for a "Coca Cola head ofchemistry" or a "Fanta French teacher." Perhaps it's time . . . [Full text of this article]

Trisha Greenhalgh, professor of primary health care

University College London, London N19 5LW p.greenhalgh@pcps.ucl.ac.uk

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