Calls for Pasifika Festival to end sale of sugary drinks

The Pasifika Festival could become sugar free. Photo/File

A public health advocacy group is calling for Pasifika Festival to follow in the footsteps of other major events and do away with sugary drinks.

FIZZ (Fighting Sugar in Soft-drinks) founder and spokesman Dr Gerhard Sundborn said the organisation would have a stall at this weekend's festival but was working with the organisers and Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development in the hope of seeing Pasifika become sugary drink free in coming years.

Jackie Hayward of Pasifika's marketing and communications team said the organisers, Orange Productions, were working towards a sugar-free festival and had encouraged all food stall holders to only stock low or no sugar drinks this weekend.

Ateed's head of major events, Charmaine Ngarimu, said the stance was consistent with the organisation's other cultural festivals where it was working towards minimising sugary drinks and ensuring there were healthy options available.

Sundborn said Polyfest and national kapa haka competition Te Matatini had already moved to stop the sale of sugary drinks at the events.

FIZZ (Fighting Sugar in Soft-drinks) founder and spokesman Dr Gerhard Sundborn is calling for Pasifika Festival to be sugar free. Photo/File

It was an important issue because the negative effects of sugary drinks on health were "radical" and included tooth decay, obesity and type 2 diabetes, he said.

Che Fu, who supports the message, would be judging a hip hop dance competition at the stall on both days of the festival but the main aim was education, Sundborn said.

"We just want to use it as an opportunity to provide information to our community about how much sugar there is in a number of our drinks. We want to offer a bit of advice about how you can calculate the number of teaspoons of sugar in drinks."

There was 11 teaspoons of sugar in an average can of fizzy drink which was above the suggested daily intake of three teaspoons for children, six teaspoons for women and nine teaspoons for men, he said.

What is FIZZ?
- A public health advocacy group made up of researchers and public health doctors which aims to see New Zealand become sugary drink free by 2025.