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Sugar-sweetened beverages — including soda, sports drinks, and fruit drinks — are significant contributors to childhood obesity. Many states have instituted policies banning access to sugar-sweetened beverages in public schools in an attempt to reduce children's intake. To find our if these policies work, investigators compared longitudinal survey data from 6900 children in 5th grade and again in 8th grade in 11 states that banned soda only, 7 states that banned all sugar-sweetened beverages, and 22 states without bans.
Eighth graders in states that banned soda only reported similar rates of in-school access to and weekly purchase of sugar-sweetened beverages (67% and 29% respectively) as students in states without bans. The rates were somew…