School bans on sugar-sweetened beverages do not appear to reduce consumption among adolescents, according to a new study published online today in Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

In states that banned only soda, about 30 percent of middle-school students still purchased sugar-laden drinks such as fruit and sports drinks at school. These results were similar to those for students in states that had no policy.

The study examined state policies that banned all sugar-sweetened beverages in schools compared with states that banned only soda or had no beverage policy for school. The aim was to see if these policies were associated with reduced in-school access and purchase of sugar-sweetened beverages and whether these polices were also associated with an overall reduced consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages among middle-school students.

Researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago, looked at policies from 40 states. The 6,900 student sample included interviews with kids first in their fifth grade year (2004) and then in their eighth grade year (2007) at public schools.

"State policies regulating beverages sold in middle schools were associated with reduced in-school sugar-sweetened beverage access and purchasing only if they banned all sugar-sweetened beverages," the authors wrote. "Access and purchasing were equivalent in states that banned only soda compared with those with no policy at all. However, even comprehensive sugar-sweetened beverage policies were not associated with overall consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages, which was largely independent of students' in-school sugar-sweetened beverage access."

Banning sugar-sweetened beverages in schools does not appear to reduce consumption among adolescents [Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine]