Geisinger Health removes sugar-sweetened beverages from campuses

The Geisinger Health system has eliminated sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) from all campuses, according to an article on the Fox43 website.

Beginning in the New Year, Geisinger food service locations will no longer sell SSBs. These items include regular soda, sugar-added fruit juices, sugar-sweetened teas, sugar-added energy drinks, bottled sugar-added iced coffee drinks and flavored milks (chocolate and strawberry).

Visitors to Geisinger locations can still get diet and zero calorie soda, 100 percent fruit juice, diet and unsweetened teas, zero calorie Powerade and Vitaminwater, regular and decaffeinated coffee, all types of unflavored milk, and water, including zero-calorie flavored waters.

“As a healthcare organization, our goal is to provide the best care to our patients, employees, members and visitors,” said Bruce Thomas, vice president of Geisinger’s Guest Services. “Geisinger serves more than 6 million meals a year. By offering healthy food and beverage options, we have a tremendous opportunity to positively impact the health and wellbeing of our entire community.”

Read the article.