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In some places, that may be exactly what happens. But – just like Weight Watchers – individual results may vary. So don’t start tossing out your Coca-Cola in favor of no-calorie beverages yet.
First, the ABA plans to finish rolling of the new guidelines at the start of the 2009 school year, so they may not have gotten to your neighborhood yet. Second, even if they have, that doesn’t mean that students who drink nothing but water, 100 percent juice and non-fat milk in school are going to stick to those same healthy choices once the school day is over.
Their reactions will depend on how school officials “frame” the new rules, according to Irwin Levin, a professor of psychology and marketing at the University of Iowa. Levin said students at schools that properly usher in the new rules will probably adopt healthier beverage habits. But if a school fumbles the transition, Levin said students could sour on healthy drinks and cling to full-calorie sodas.
More than 2,000 schools have already transitioned into the Alliance’s beverage plan, and thousands more will have to convert in the next year. Major bottlers are in the process of converting their stock to meet the calorie, nutrition and portion size constraints that the ABA agreed to. Once they have, they won’t sell anything else in schools.
Until 2009, many schools can enforce whatever metric they like. The Hickman Mills School District in Kansas City, for example, uses the Missouri Eat Smart Guidelines. The policy limits sodas to 50 percent of offered items – though it makes no distinction between diet and full-calorie sodas. According to Leah Schmidt, the district’s director of nutrition services, her students readily accepted the new policy, but she was uncertain if that behavior followed them to the mini-mart.
“Changing their habits may take a little while,” she said.