Strong leadership on sugary drink ban in Auckland

Wed Jul 27 2016 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)

Strong leadership on sugary drink ban in Auckland

27 July 2016

Research fellow, Dr Gerhard Sundborn.

A two year strategy to eliminate sugary drinks, starting with vending machines in leisure centres Auckland wide, is an excellent way to change the environment in order to tackle obesity, says FIZZ NZ spokesman, Dr Gerhard Sundborn.

“This new Auckland Council initiative shows strong leadership from the Council,” he says.

The Council today announced that it would remove sugar-sweetened drinks from vending machines at 15 council operated leisure centres.  The operational decision will remove 340 kilograms a year of refined sugar (equivalent to 85,000 sugar cubes) from the vending machines.  Instead they will offer water, unflavoured milk, 100 percent fruit juice,  diluted fruit juices with no added sugar, and artificially sweetened soft drinks.

“Poor nutritional choices of individuals are blamed for the obesity epidemic, but we know that people have not changed much over the last 20-30 years,” says Dr Sundborn, a research fellow at the University of Auckland. “What has changed, is our increasingly obesogenic environment.

“Eliminating the availability of sugary drinks with initiatives such as this from the Auckland Council is an excellent way to meaningfully address obesity in our society,” he says.

“Sugary drinks have already been banned from our hospitals nationwide. We now need to strengthen the recommendation to get them out of schools – making it compulsory.”

Dr Sundborn says, “Auckland follows a number of progressive cities that have introduced policy restricting availability of sugary drinks including Boston, New York and Nelson here in New Zealand.

“It would be great to see other New Zealand cities adopt this type of initiative,” he says.

Dr Sundborn, is the founder of FIZZ NZ that opposes sugar sweetened beverages.

“The Auckland Council has been bold and shown healthy leadership by introducing a ban on sugary drinks in their vending machines,” he says. “We hope this will encourage similar action by other local councils across New Zealand.”

The Council's removal of sugar-sweetened drinks will roll out between July and October this year with all centres offering healthier choices in time for the peak summer season.

It is having ongoing discussions with relevant partners and suppliers over the provision of healthy choices across all areas of the council operations.

For media enquiries email Suzi Phillips, Media Advisor, Medical and Health Sciences.