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Since the recent announcement from the World Health Organization (WHO) that all countries should implement a 20 percent soda tax to help reduce worldwide health risks linked to sugary drink consumption, many countries and health advocate groups have started talking about various new sugary drink reduction policy initiatives.
Now a group of Doctors, researchers, and public health advocates have joined together with the goal of eliminating sugary drinks from New Zealand by 2025.
The group, FIZZ, which stands for “Fighting Sugar in Softdrinks”, states on their website their justification in ending sales of sodas is due to the tide of evidence that implicates consumption of sugary drinks with common health risks like type-2 diabetes, rotten teeth gout, and cardiovascular diseases.
They also believe that sugary drinks can be addictive, and hope to implement policy recommendations like sugary drinks taxes, restricting sales and advertising of sugary drinks in public workplaces and institutions and more.
Members from FIZZ are already working to raise awareness about the danger of consuming sugary drinks within schools, communities, the government and food retailers.
The group has also already had push back from the beverage companies to change the original group’s logo, according to one recent blog, but are still fighting forward to help to reduce sugary beverages in communities.
But success has been shown in their efforts.
In March of 2013, pilot studies were also started to decrease sugary drink consumption among local youth, where 100% of schools in the Keston area signed up for the study.
Most recently, in September of 2015 the group helped scrap sugary drinks from all New Zealand hospitals.
FIZZ continues to encourage citizens to take action on their site and learn more about the dangers of sugar and sugary drink consumption, to learn more about the group visit their website.
By The Numbers
74
percent
of Latino kids have had a sugary drink by age 2 (vs. 45% of white kids)
