Your Aug. 22 Business Day article reports a startling new trend of aggressively marketing caffeinated soft drinks to children. But the article ignored one of the worst aspects of adding caffeine to soda. Introducing a mildly addictive drug to soft drinks encourages children to drink sugar water instead of more nutritious beverages like fruit juice and low-fat milk.
United States Department of Agriculture data show that teen-age boys drink twice as much soda as milk and that teen-age girls drink one and a half times as much. Children under five are drinking 23 percent more soft drinks than in the late 1970's.
It is likely no coincidence that the five top-selling sodas, Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Cola, Diet Coke, Mountain Dew and Dr. Pepper, all contain caffeine. Caffeinated soft drinks can undermine children's diets and cause anxiety, restlessness and insomnia.
The Food and Drug Administration should require that soft drinks and other foods be labeled with their caffeine content to help parents decide what their children should drink.
What's more, as obesity among American children soars to 1 in every 5 children, the F.D.A. should take a careful look at the health effects of caffeinated soft drinks and determine what additional measures are necessary to protect out children's health.
PATRICIA LIEBERMAN
Washington, Aug. 22, 1997
The writer is a senior science policy fellow with the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
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