June 22, 2022
Sugar free drink ban call
A petition calling for all schools in New Zealand sugary drink free will be presented to Green MP Elizabeth Kerekere at Parliament today.
The Education Ministry wants primary schools to be sugar free but is stopping short of asking secondary schools be held to the same standard.
Shona Jaunas from Open Forum for Health Information, which has organised the petition along with Health Coalition Aotearoa and The New Zealand Beverage Guide Panel, says consumption of free sugars in sugar sweetened beverages contributes to 26 percent of the total sugar intake of children.
Those ‘free sugars’ contribute significantly to high rates of poor physical health, poor oral health, diabetes, and other health-related diseases.
The petition calls for a healthy food environment at all schools and for the existing nutrition guidelines to be replaced with a regulation that all schools and kura kaupapa Māori supply healthy, nutritious food.