Should children under the age of 13 be allowed to drink soda?

Unless your parent packed it in your lunch, you can't get sodas at school anymore, or any junk food or candy for that matter...at least in Texas. And teachers can't give said food to students either, unless it's part of a behavior plan or they're diabetic.

In any case, I don't think it should be banned. Alcohol is banned (for people under 21) because of it's ability to impair judgment and senses; it can cause serious injury or death in a very short period of time. You may become obese or diabetic 10 years down the road from drinking 2-3 sodas every day and not exercising, but you're not gonna kill anyone on the road from having a carbonated drink.

So I agree with discouraging not banning. It's important we teach the importance of proper health and give our kids the tools to make informed decisions. We ban it, it's only gonna make them want it more. As for my son, who's 2 1/2, he may get a Sprite or Coke every now and then when there's nothing else available. But it's pretty much water, juice and milk for him. And by every now and then I mean, maybe once a month if that. He barely eats any candy or other sweets. So yeah, we make sure he's eating healthy now so he continues it later.

Bad thing is how can our kids become informed if the parents are not?

 

Kid's cereal

Sunny D

Froot Roll-Ups

 

I can't believe so many people have said no. If kids want a Coke, why shouldn't they have a coke. I along with everyone I ever went to school with had cokes with lunch and we turned out fine.

 

Something like 8-12 tablespoons of sugar in every can.

Disgusting.

I never drink the stuff...and if I ever have a kid, they won't be getting into it either.

It's got to be a personal decision though - it probably should be banned, but no hope of enforcing it.

Me thinks some parents should be banned, period.

 

maybe no soda machines allowed in school? outside of school, it's up to the parents.

 

There is a lot of sugar in a cookie too. Imagine how much sugar it takes for a blob of flour to taste that sweet.

 

just because it isn't good for you does not mean it doesn't taste good. Many great tasting things have a ton of sugar in the,

 

Fairly good chance that either one or both of rhino17 and Yallmean are fatties.

 

I don't even like soft drinks, I'm just sayin, things that taste good tend to be bad for you

 

Lot of good replies here. I think the best first step is to ban advertisements of soda, the same way tobacco is now. We have been lied to by soda corporations just like we were with tobacco, it's just a matter of time before people realize this. Beer ads should be banned too, btw.

I don't think it is worth going through all the red tape and wasting tax dollars to try to ban it, though, as it is a fruitless endeavor since most parents have already been indoctrinated into believing that sodas are okay. However, I don't think anything will change unless the public puts up a big fuss. The reality is that sodas are bad, bad news, unless you are buying the more expensive ones with higher quality ingredients. Even sadder is that most conventional food manufacturers have replaced raw sugar with HFCS or aspartame, two substances with proven links to disease.

I recommend this article for more info: http://www.naturalnews.com/027085_soda_health_soda_consumption.html

 

I got an idea how about kids go outside and play that would help the obesity problem instead of parents living in fear and keeping their children in the house all day.

 

I agree.

When I was elementary and middle school aged, my friends and I played driveway basketball, full-on 7 on 7 street football games, and took off on cross-neighborhood bike rides on a daily basis.

Then as I was going through high school in the late 90's, I thought it was strange how I saw very few kids playing outside. At the time I chalked it up to all the kids in the neighborhood getting older along with me...a cyclical thing I guess.

Now I realize that most, if not all of it, was likely due to the huge boom in technology. Nobody was even going to arcades in the early to mid 2000's because they had the best graphics at home, with online play to boot.

All of these advancements are certainly incredible...but potentially devastating as well. I think the next 10 to 20 years will be extremely interesting.

 

Soda can definitely be addictive. You know how I know? Because I quit drinking them four months ago, and I've been jonesing for a Diet Coke every single minute of every day.

Having said that, I do think we have to be careful to avoid the Demolition Man future: where everything that is bad for you is illegal. Otherwise, we run the risk of eating rat-burgers with Denis Leary in his underground sewar lair. And that's just sad for everybody.

 

No, it should not be banned from children.

It starts with parenting. If adults become more educated, they will pass it along to their children. There are still A LOT of people that don't realize just how bad soda is for their body. I shudder at the thought of anyone going through a 2-liter or even 3-6 cans a day of the stuff. Parents have to take responsibility.

That being said, I drank probably 2-3 Dr. Pepper's/Coke's/Root Beers a day growing up, but I was also outside playing sports several days a week. Now I don't touch anything other than diet except on very rare occasion and I am not overweight at all.

 

Jonesing you say?



I occasionally drink some of this stuff (the root beer, primarily). It's still not terribly healthy, but I drink it to avoid drinking alcohol, so.... maybe it's an improvement...?

 

Cruel, man. Cruel.

 

If you take it away, they will just binge drink soda once they are old enough. They will have soda keg parties and do "shotguns" at junior high parties.

 

The law varies by state. I've seen a chart summarizing it somewhere. I will see if I can find it.

The information is on this site:

http://www.alcoholpolicy.niaaa.nih....475-4CC4-81EF-9CB6A10A902A}&Type=B_BASIC#UACN