Former Mayor Mike Bloomberg lost a court battle to ban super-sized sodas — but he may have won in the court of public opinion.
The percentage of New York City high school students drinking “soda or pop” plummeted during his last term at City Hall, a federal survey reveals.
Only 15.7 percent of city teenagers in 2013 said they drank a soda in the previous seven days — down from 20.9 percent in 2011, 22.2 percent in 2009 and 23.5 percent in 2007, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey.
The number of kids who had two or more servings of soda during the prior week also fell, to 10.4 percent from 14.8 percent two years prior.
And the number of students who didn’t have any soda at all during the prior seven days surged to 29.6 percent in 2013 from 26.1 percent in 2011.
Soda sales have been falling nationally, but by much smaller percentages.
A top adviser to Bloomberg claimed the heated public debate — and court defeat — of the proposed ban on large sugary drinks in city-regulated eateries turned out to be a blessing.
“The proposed soda ban clearly changed behavior. It discouraged people from drinking soda,” said Howard Wolfson, Bloomberg’s former deputy mayor.
Mayor de Blasio said he supports restrictions on the size of sugary drinks and his administration is exploring ways of doing so.
The city Health Department said despite improvements an unacceptable number of students were still sugary drinks.
“While rates are declining, young people continue to drink sugary drinks – including sports drinks, soda and sweetened teas – at alarmingly high rates,” said spokeswoman Veronica Lewin.
“More than 40 percent of public high school students reported consuming an average of one or more sugary drinks per day.
“We will continue to do everything we can to reduce sugary drink consumption, a leading contributor to the obesity epidemic.”