Marcus Agnew: Keep green fizzy nuclear waste drinks from kids

Marcus Agnew

One thing that has readily amazed and saddened me over the last year or so, is the abundance of brightly coloured sugary fizzy drinks, readily and happily available for our young children.

It can be pretty heartbreaking, walking into an environment and seeing an innocent young child casually sipping on a large bottle of brightly coloured fizzy.

Particularly sad, when the very reason you are there in the first place, is to try and help with the health and behavioural challenges that the older adolescents are facing – it's pretty obvious the track the little kid with the big bottle of fizzy is heading down.

One of the drinks that caught my eye recently was a green fizzy. It was scary, greener than green, it was so bright, rich and intense - it looked like some kind of nuclear waste.

Greener than Kermit, and the kids are buying it, cheap, and very nasty.

Sure, we all have freedom of choice of course, and some will say in moderation, everything is okay. But by saying nothing as a community, we are basically saying it is okay, even endorsing it.

Often nothing is said, as they freely walk into some of our schools, and even around some of our community health centres.

And by the way, it's not just the fizzy, some of the flavoured milk and 'sports drinks' can be just as bad.

Surely, we all know it's bad, all that sugar and colouring, so what's going on?

Sadly, it seems more prevalent in the lower decile communities. Often a reason put forth for poor nutrition, is a greater expense of good healthy food, and that the takeaway options can be so cheap and easy.

But with the drinks scenario, that excuse doesn't cut it - water is free (albeit a few issues there too).

So, with cost not being the issue, it would be an interesting exercise trying to explain to the Martians why we humans feed our children this stuff.

It was interesting to see the public airing their views around the Te Mata Peak track – it would be great to see the same outcry against something like this, an issue that is so obviously bad for our children, and our future generations.

An issue, that at some time later, we as a community inevitably pick up the bill for the health-related treatment.

The Martians would assume, at least equivalent public outcry, demanding our tamariki are not exposed to such dangers. Why on earth would we actively give young humans something that mucks up their sleep patterns, their attention span, their behaviour and ultimately their ability to learn in class – let alone the rotten teeth, obesity, diabetes etc that can arise later (if it hasn't already).

It shouldn't be left to the already busy hospital to pick up the pieces. Some personal responsibility would go a long way.

But with it seemingly more prevalent in the lower decile zones, one can only assume It has to be an education and awareness thing, so we need to drive more positive programmes into these areas, to help set the kids on the right path – for them, and the future generations.

Some great work is being done, and some council facilities have even withdrawn junk food, but as a whole community we need to do more to say this is not okay…No means no.

Marcus Agnew is the health and sport development manager at Hawke's Bay Community Fitness Centre Trust and is also a lecturer in sports science at EIT.
All opinions are his and not those of Hawke's Bay Today.