Sugary beverages on way out at Wisconsin hospital

MADISON, Wis. — UW Health plans to stop selling sugar-sweetened beverages by the end of the year, becoming one of the first health care organizations in Wisconsin to eliminate sugary drinks as a way to encourage patients, employees and visitors to consume healthier alternatives.

UW Hospital will also remove deep fryers from its cafeteria in December, as it joins a growing list of hospitals nationwide trying to model healthy behaviors.

“It’s consistent with the advice we pass out to families and ask them to follow,” said Dr. David Allen, the hospital’s head of pediatric diabetes and endocrinology.

Other hospitals and clinics in Madison and throughout the state have taken steps to encourage healthier drinks such as water and low-fat milk. But UW Health joins Baldwin Area Medical Center as the only health care systems in Wisconsin to announce they are eliminating sugary drinks.

UW Hospital, American Family Children’s Hospital and UW Health clinics will get rid of regular soda, sweetened fruit-flavored drinks, energy drinks, high-calorie sports drinks and sweetened teas and coffees from food-service locations, vending machines, kiosks, a catering service and administrative buildings.

Remaining drinks will include bottled water, sparkling waters, vitamin waters, flavor-infused spa water, fat-free and low-fat milk, 100 percent fruit juices, low-calorie sports drinks, unsweetened teas and diet soda.

Those drinks will be color coded and priced to encourage the healthiest options. Water will be coded green, for example, while 100 percent fruit juice will be yellow and diet soda will be red, with the latter costing more.

Employees and visitors will still be able to bring in sugary drinks.

In the cafeteria, french fries, cheese curds, fish, onion rings and shrimp will continue to be offered. But they will be baked, not fried.

The hospital removed sugary drinks and fried foods from patient menus last year. Some patients