• The Washington Post , Wednesday, September 26, 2007 11:15 AM

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) has introduced a bill that would have the government set new nutritional standards for the foods and drinks that schools sell to students outside cafeterias. The current version of the legislation requires the Agriculture Department to begin developing the rules behind the standards, but industry and public health advocates favor speeding things up by writing the standards into the legislation itself. What those standards should be is the issue.

Public health advocates want to ban the sale of Gatorade and Powerade, which typically contain as much as two-thirds the sugar of sodas and sodium, as well as sweetened waters such as VitaminWater and SoBe Life Water. The trade group representing Coca-Cola, Pepsi and other bottlers, counters that sports drinks and sweetened waters are lower in calories, "appropriate" for high school students and "essential" to young athletes.

For Harkin, allowing sports drinks in schools could be a deal-breaker. "Our most recognized national health watchdog--the Institute of Medicine--said sports drinks are equivalent to flavored water, noting their high sugar content," he says.

Read the whole story at The Washington Post »