At least 30 medical centers across the nation have restricted the sale of soda and full-calorie energy drinks, a list that includes the Cleveland Clinic, says the New York Times. UC-San Francisco, with a health sciences center, has gone a step farther by stopping sales entirely of sugar-sweetened beverages on its campus and creating the setting to study the impact on people who formerly drank the beverages during the work day.
“A university survey of 2,500 employees found that some service workers and support staff members had been drinking up to a liter of soda at work and at home each day, or almost three cans. Six months after the policy went into effect, these workers had reduced their consumption by about a quarter,” says the Times. As well, researchers enrolled 214 of the 24,000 employees at UCSF for a study to see if there are metabolic changes in people who now consumer fewer soft drinks.
The policy was announced in July and phased in over four months. It applies to the medical center and to the entire campus. “Visitors … now will find only bottled water, diet drinks, unsweetened teas and in some cases, 100 percent fruit juice with no added sugar,” says the Times. The beverage industry says UCSF is following a flawed idea because obesity rates have climbed although per capita soda consumption is down.