Removing Vending Machines from Schools May not Help in Lowering Soda Consumption

Removing vending machines from schools might not be effective in lowering soda consumption among students, a new study has found.

The researchers at the University of Illinois, Chicago, evaluated whether vending machines in schools affected the daily intake of soda and other unhealthy fast foods outside schools when combined with factors such as tax rates and soda bans in schools. They mainly focused on regular intake of fast food and soda. The finding was based on the evaluation of 8,245 high school students in 27 states.

They noticed that 23 percent of the students reported drinking at least one soda per day when they had access to vending machines in schools as compared to the 28 percent of students who lacked access to the machine.

The differences, however, were noticed only in states where tax on soda was less or students were able to buy soda from school cafeteria.

In this study, the researchers associated the data from the National Youth Physical Activity and Nutrition Study with state level data on soda taxes, restaurant taxes and law governing the sale of soda in schools in 2010.

Apart from this, when the vending machines were removed students consumed more food mainly when the state sales tax rates for restaurant food 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.

The researchers caution that the study does not highlight the bad news for school nutrition, rather explain that just a single change introduced in school food environment does not have an impact when kids have access to high-fat, high-calorie food 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 finding was documented in PLOS One.