August 16/Los Angeles/Los Angeles Times -- Economists monitoring the beverage industry’s promise to get sodas and many other sugary drinks out of schools found that companies shipped 90% fewer calories to schools in 2010, compared with 2004, and reduced shipments of full-calorie sodas by 97%.
That is the result of a pledge, called the School Beverage Guidelines, signed in 2006 by major beverage companies, former President Bill Clinton and health advocacy groups; the pledge outlined calorie content and serving sizes, among other things, for what the companies would send to schools. Lest anyone fear a little of the fox tending the henhouse, the initiative including independent monitoring.