Effective May 1, Dayton (Ohio) Children's Hospital will no longer sell sugary drinks, including soda and sports drinks, at all of its locations.
Deborah Feldman, president and CEO of Dayton Children's, decided to initiate the ban because of the link between sugar-sweetened beverages and chronic disease in children. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, sugary drinks are the primary source of added sugar in a child's daily diet, and every 12-ounce soft drink consumed daily leads to a 60 percent increased risk of obesity.
"As the only organization in our region solely dedicated to the health of children, it is our responsibility to lead by example to curb the childhood obesity epidemic. Our community looks to us as pediatric experts to offer healthy choices and sound advice," Ms. Feldman said in a news release. "While we believe it is important to offer a variety of healthy choices, sugar-sweetened beverages are rarely a healthy option."
Several other children's hospitals across the U.S. have stopped selling sugary beverages, including Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, Seattle Children's Hospital, Lucile Packard Children's Hospital in Palo Alto, Calif., and Children's Mercy Hospitals and Clinics in Kansas City, Mo. Essentia Health, an 18-hospital system based in Duluth, Minn., announced last summer that it would eliminate soda and other sugar-based beverages at two of its hospitals.
According to a May 2013 survey from Health Care Without Harm's Healthy Food in Health Care program, more than 80 percent of hospital respondents said they have initiated some kind of "healthy beverage" program, which included reducing or eliminating sugary drinks and soda.
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