California lawmakers are trying to get soda and other sugary drinks out of kids meals

Would you like water with that?

Kids’ meals in California’s restaurants may only be offered with water or milk if a bill in the state Legislature is successful, and it has already made several steps in that direction.

No soda? No juice?

Here’s what you should know about this bill.

What does the bill do?

For restaurants that sell children’s meals, it would require the default beverage offering to be water, sparkling water, flavored water, unflavored milk or a nondairy milk alternative. Goodbye, chocolate milk.

However, it wouldn’t completely ban options like soda. Customers could still get alternative beverages by request, the restaurants just have to offer the regulated options first.

That includes menu listing and advertising of meals for children. Restaurants caught violating the law, after a warning, could be fined as much as $500.

What’s the point of this?

The bill says it’s meant to fight obesity and diabetes.

One in five school-age children and young people in the U.S. is obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. UCLA researchers have found that nearly one in three California kids drink at least one sugar-laden drink daily even though doing so increases their risk of obesity, tooth decay and a host of other health problems from type 2 diabetes to liver disease.

“It is the intent of the Legislature to support parents’ efforts to feed their children nutritiously by ensuring healthy beverages are the default options in children’s meals in restaurants,” the bill says.

And not only that, but it argues that the medical costs associated with obesity put an extra burden on tax payers through Medicare and Medicaid.

“It’s a thoughtful approach to giving families choice, making sure the choice is a healthful one but not taking away the right if they want to order the sugar-sweetened beverage,” said Sen. Bill Monning, D-Carmel, the author of the bill.

What has been the response been so far?

Supporters of the bill include the American Heart Association, California State Alliance of YMCAs and the Latino Coalition for a Healthy California.

On the other hand, Sen. Joel Anderson, R-Alpine, voted against the bill because he says this should be up to parents.

“I trust parents and I thought parents can make those decisions,” Anderson said.

Several people were in agreement with that point on Twitter or thought this wasn’t a worthwhile fight for lawmakers.

In recent history, efforts to impact the eating habits of children in the U.S. have had varied affects, including the 2012 Michelle Obama-inspired school food regulations that were rolled back by the Trump administration in 2017.

“This announcement is the result of years of feedback from students, schools, and food service experts about the challenges they are facing in meeting the final regulations for school meals,” Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said in a statement. “If kids aren’t eating the food, and it’s ending up in the trash, they aren’t getting any nutrition — thus undermining the intent of the program.”

The California bill — passed unanimously on the committee level in both the Assembly and Senate and passed 32-7 on the Senate floor. It faces another Assembly committee before it goes to the Assembly floor, and if it passes there, Gov. Jerry Brown would be in line to give the final approval.

Does this remind anyone of that “Parks and Recreation” episode where a “child size” soda is the actual size of a child? What do you think of the bill?