STOCKTON – Stockton teenagers have a drinking problem, but in this case, it’s not about alcohol. It’s about kids getting fat.
Their drink of choice is sugar-sweetened beverages – sodas, sports drinks and juices. Legal to have anywhere and sold virtually everywhere.
But nowhere in California are adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17 drinking more sugared drinks than in San Joaquin County, where 77.8 percent of youth are consuming one or more sodas per day, according to the 2009 “Bubbling Over” report from the University of California, Los Angeles, Center for Health Policy Research.