I remember growing up drinking pitchers and pitchers of Kool-Aid. Back then you opened the packet, which was 5 or 10 cents at the time, poured it into a pitcher, and added cups of sugar. Then you filled the rest with water, stirred it all together and then placed it in the fridge to get cold. Once it was cold, we would drink it all day long.

Eventually, they came out with sugar-free Kool-Aid. I remember early on the sugar-free was not as good as the Kool-Aid that was made with real sugar.

Nowadays with childhood obesity being called a "major problem" in our country, cities are taking steps to make sure kids drink beverages with either less sugar or no sugar whatsoever. Baltimore has become the first major city to remove sugary drinks from the kids' menus.

According to NBC News, Baltimore will now prohibit restaurants from including sugary drinks on their children's' menus. That means when your kid goes out to dinner or lunch with you their options for beverages will most likely be water, milk and 100% fruit juices.

That doesn't mean that your kid will get arrested if he drinks a soda, parents can still order that for their children, but it will not be part of the kids' menus.

According to the NBC News report, other cities already have a ban in place including cities in California and Colorado. One of the main reasons Baltimore did it, according to NBC News, is because child obesity in Baltimore is at a very high level. They say one in three high school children are obese.

So how do you feel about this? Do you think New York should ban sodas and drinks that contain sugar from kids' menus at restaurants?

Besides drinking the sugar-filled Kool-Aid as a child, I remember going to the nearest neighbors house when we were thirsty, turning on the hose, and drinking the water directly from that. If you didn't let the water run for a few seconds you ended up with a mouth full of hot water if their hose was sitting in the sun. It's amazing any of us survived, isn't it?

[via NBC News]

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