I was happy to see the March 10 online article, “Burger King drops soft drinks from kids’ menu.” I predict it won’t be the last fast food chain to drop sugary drinks for kids.
As a pediatrician, I encourage my patients — and their parents — to reduce sugary drink consumption. Sugary drinks are the single largest source of added sugar in the American diet with unique and proven health hazards.
They contribute to high rates of diabetes, obesity and heart disease that cost Illinois more than $6 billion in unnecessary health care costs. Consumption of 12 ounces of sweetened soda for most children exceeds the recent World Health Organization recommendation to limit sugar to less than 10 percent of total energy intake.
While another restaurant chain taking sugary drinks off of the children’s menu is a step in the right direction, we need new approaches. The Healthy Eating Active Living (HEAL) Act, introduced in the Illinois legislature and supported by more than 25 organizations, including the Illinois Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, is expected to generate more than $600 million a year to expand opportunities for healthy eating and physical activity statewide, through a small tax on sugary drinks.
Just as sugary drinks will no longer be the default choice for kids when they visit Burger King, we must invest in solutions that make the healthy choice the easiest and most affordable choice for families.
— Jerold Stirling, professor and chairman of pediatrics, Stritch College of Medicine, Loyola University Chicago
