In 2001 , Belgian schools waged a newfangled front in the state of war against childhood obesity . In an sweat to keep tiddler aside from sugary potable , a program emerge to swap tonic and lemonade for a intelligent choice : beer .
In this alone scheme , the schoolhouse would serve up a relatively watery brewage called tafelbier , which contain 1.5 - 2.5 % alcohol ( a regular Budweiser has 5.5 % ) . Kids would opt between lager and bitter . The brewsky came in 25 or 33 centiliter bottles — a bit less than the amount of beer in standard 12 - oz fanny .
The plan was the brainchild of a Belgian beer society , the Limburg Beer Friends . The club ’s president , Rony Langenaeken , came up with the idea after hearing about a Belgian study linking childhood consumption of sugary drinks to obesity and breast cancer . At the time , Langenaeken told reporters , “ It ’s good for their flesh and very tidy as well . ”
The programme was aimed at kids from geezerhood 3 to 15 . While some adult expressed concern at the idea of 5 - yr - olds chugging cold ones at lunch , Langenaeken try out to assure doubter that kids would n’t in reality get intoxicated off such modest part . “ Beer is for the whole family , " he said . “ I used to drink it when I was just six old age erstwhile . ”
The Lagere Gemengde School in Hasselt decided to give the design a test - run , and it sure enough went over well with students . accord to a 2001 tarradiddle in theAkron Beacon Journal , 75 % of the pupils surveyed preferred the new brew to other soft drinks .
Last Call
While fry were psyched about the lather , parent had a harder clock time swallowing the estimate . “ The word ‘ alcohol ’ was and is still a difficult notion , ” said Langenaeken . Some adults were worry the brews would touch on children ’s density in the classroom , making them rowdy or sleepy . Unfortunately for all the eight - year - sometime Belgian beer enthusiasts , no other schools agreed to quiz the programme , and the estimation never caught on .
