Chapter 9: Pushing Soft Drinks: "Pouring Rights"

I must start my analysis of this chapter with a fact and a confession: soft drinks are one of the worst items, if not the worst single item that negatively affects American health. Also, I have been drinking large amounts of Diet Coke ever since I could walk.
I feel that my story has parallels to the situation of people born in the 30's and 40's, who took up smoking before it was widely acknowledged to be horrible for your health. Though I continuously cut back, it might be too late for me to completely remove the high-sodium, caffeine-riddled drink from my diet. When I compare myself with friends who didn't grow up with soft drinks in their homes, my relationship with soda is much more unhealthy. With the high-profile presence of sodas in schools, most children's exposure will probably be close to my own. Putting and keeping sodas in schools is dangerous and habit forming; I enthusiastically believe that public schools should not be allowed to make contracts with food corporations. These contracts undermine efforts to improve child nutrition, and add unnecessary calories to the diet of the already-overweight American youth.