Beginning in July next year, Denver restaurants would only offer water or milk as the “default” drink options to children under a proposed ordinance the City Council’s business committee advanced on Wednesday.

The entire council still needs to deliberate the proposal, and it’s not immediately clear where Mayor Mike Johnston stands on the concept.

The proposal defines “default” beverage in a “children’s meal” to mean two things — water, which may be “still or sparkling, with no added sugar” or “dairy milk or non-dairy milk substitute with no added sugar.”

Similar measures have passed in the nearby cities of Longmont, Lafayette and Golden.

The concept is not new. In 2012, New York City limited the sales of sugary drinks larger than 16 ounces in restaurants, igniting a debate in America and across the globe over the consumption of soda.

Much like Denver today, New York City officials framed the ban as a tool to combat obesity and promote a healthier lifestyle. Critics complained that it infringed on consumers’ choices. New York’s state supreme court ultimately struck it down, concluding it exceeded the scope of the regulatory authority of its health board.

Other cities have adopted a similar stance. Boston barred the sale and advertising of sugary drinks from city-owned buildings and city-sponsored events. Los Angeles and San Francisco also reduced sugar drink sales from city-owned properties.

Supporters of Denver’s ban similarly describe it as a strategy aimed at promoting “healthier foods and beverages” and combatting sugary drinks, which they argued are “harmful to children’s health.”

“Specifically, the consumption of one or more sugary drinks a day increases the risk of short- and long-term health conditions such as tooth decay, type II diabetes, liver disease, and heart disease,” a memo accompanying the proposed ordinance said. 

“Providing healthy default options on kids’ menus is proven to lead to families selecting these drinks, while maintaining personal choice. People stick to the healthy default beverage menu options about 66% of the time,” the memo added.

The Colorado Restaurant Association offered a “neutral” position to Denver’s proposal, the group’s lobbyist said.

“While we are not yet entirely in agreement, we are grateful for the stakeholder work that’s gone into this policy so far and we look forward to continuing the conversation,” Colin Larson said in a statement.

“Denver restaurants are eager to be a partner in helping to combat childhood obesity,” Larson said. “We have been successfully engaged with the council members running this measure to make sure this policy didn’t unfairly penalize restaurants.”

It’s not immediately clear whether the soda industry will fight the proposed ban in Denver, but New York’s jumbo-size limits were unpopular among residents there. Critics there framed it as an overreach, arguing people should have the freedom to pursue their dietary preferences.

Others noted that the ban doesn’t really address obesity — precisely because people can just buy smaller-sized sugary drinks at bigger numbers.  

Under Denver’s proposal, a retail food establishment may only list the milk and water options for drinks in kids’ menus, and employees “cannot offer any beverage other than the default beverage.”

The proposal allows a restaurant to sell any other beverage, including soda, if a customer requests it.

The mandate, if enacted into law, gives parents a chance to think twice about ordering sugar-based drinks at restaurants for their children, claimed Chris Hinds, the councilmember from District 10 who co-sponsored the measure.

“The idea behind this legislation is to nudge people to do the right thing,” Hinds told The Denver Gazette on Thursday. “The idea is to start with a menu giving someone in a family, particularly the parents, the start of a healthy option.”

He added, “Should a parent want to give their kids Coke or whatever, they can do that.” 

The ban is “helpful to parents who are trying to not introduce sugar at such an early age to our children, and trying to curb those health issues that can be long lasting thereafter,” said at-large Councilmember Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez, who co-sponsored the measure.

Andrea Pascual, the chronic disease prevention program manager at Denver Health’s Public Health Institute, told councilmembers the measure “aligns with numerous city plans to improve children’s health, increase access to nutritious foods and removes the targeted marketing of sugary drinks.”

The ban will result in lower obesity rates, healthier kids and reduced chances of diabetes, Pascual claimed, adding that sugar-based beverages in restaurants “exceed recommended sugar limits of six tablespoons a day.” Sugary drinks offered with children’s meals at restaurants measure around 10 tablespoons of sugar, Pascual said.

If Denver enacted the measure, it could influence state legislators to follow suit, according to Gonzales-Gutierrez, a former state legislator.

“Behind all of these proposals (they) might say, ‘I think it’s time to take it to the next next level,’ and if this is something we can do at the state level, I think it’ll be probably be a much bigger battle there,” Gonzales-Gutierrez told The Denver Gazette.