Rebutting Big Soda's favorite soundbites

Claim: All foods can be part of a balanced diet!

Response: Sure, as an occasional snack. But a daily lunch of junk food harms kids' health and their ability to learn.

Claim: Kids should have free choice and should learn to exercise personal responsibility!

Response: We don't expect young children to exercise personal responsibility by crossing the street alone. We hold their hands. And until they're grown up, we still guide and protect our kids.

Claim: Kids won't eat healthy food!

Response: "Healthy" doesn't have to mean exotic organic-vegan creations. Familiar foods like sandwiches, soup, pasta, salad, chow mein and baked chicken are both healthy and kid-friendly.

Claim: Kids will just go off campus to buy junk food!

Response: Maybe. But schools must not contribute to harming their health. While schools are educating students and their families about the junk-food-laden environment that helps create the nutrition crisis, they undermine their own message by being part of that environment. Schools need to be part of the solution, not part of the problem.

Claim: Offering poor choices teaches kids to choose wisely!

Response: If that were true, obesity would decrease as junk food proliferated in schools. And we don't offer kids cigarettes, alcohol or pornography to teach them to make wise choices.

Claim: It's parents' responsibility to keep their kids from buying junk food at school!

Response: Parents are undermined when schools surround their kids with unhealthy snacks and sodas. And even if parents could control what their kids ate at school, not all parents are vigilant enough to be aware of the problem. Schools should not be encouraged to harm the health of children with less savvy parents.

Claim: 18-year-olds can serve in the military and vote, and some high-schoolers are 18, so they should have access to whatever foods they want!

Response: 18-year-olds CAN eat whatever foods they want — they just shouldn't be able to buy them at school. Schools need to emphasize protecting the youngest and most vulnerable students rather than accommodating the oldest and least vulnerable.

Claim: But schools need the money from selling junk foods.

Response: A recent editorial in a Tennessee newspaper asked: If selling junk food at school leads to even one new case of Type 2 diabetes in a student, is that price worth paying for what the money provides — whether it's new uniforms for the football team or the junior class trip?

Even if we did assume that schools would lose money if they don't sell junk food &mdash which is not what happened at Aptos Middle School — we have to keep our priorities straight. You can't put a price on children's health.

— Caroline