In a study published in The Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, researchers found that soda bans in middle schools did not significantly reduce students’ consumption of sugary drinks.  Kids responded to the ban by simply purchasing different kinds of sugary drinks, like juices and sports drinks, in school vending machines.  More importantly, overall consumption of sugary drinks did not fall in schools that banned all sugar-sweetened beverages from campus. Kids simply brought them from home.

The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.  The sample included thousands of public middle school students in 40 states.

Undeterred, one study author argued that “more initiatives that target sweetened beverage consumption outside of schools — like beverage taxes and regulations on their marketing to children — were needed.”

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.