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On a Southwest Airlines flight from Sacramento to Burbank, we're offered a drink shortly after we take off. I'm sitting in the back, in my usual aisle seat, because when we land in Burbank they'll open the back door as well as the front door and I can get out faster. I usually pass on the drink and sip on the bottle of water I bring with me. As we're in close quarters, I can't help but hear what all the people around me are ordering. Across the aisle from me are a mom and her two little girls - probably around 6 and 8 years old. What do the girls order? Diet Coke!
As a mother myself, I am appalled. This is wrong on so many levels. And yet, the mother of these two little girls thinks nothing of it. Has she not read any newspaper article or magazine? Caffeine, artificial sweetener, sodium, all kinds of chemicals and preservaties - there is NOTHING that is of any value to the body in these sodas. The worst part of this whole scenario is that the soda is basically addictive, so these girls are starting in on a very bad habit at a very young age.
What is it going to take to get parents to understand that they have to help their children to make good choices for themselves in every aspect of their lives - including the food and drink that they put into their bodies? Maybe we should put an age limit on sodas the way we do on cigarettes. I don't know what the solution is, but with the problems with juvenile onset diabetes and youth obesity running rampant in the United States, we have to do something, because evidently parents just aren't doing enough.
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