Schools cop flak over sweet sales

Nutrition boss slams chocolate fundraiser.

Sending boxes of chocolate home for students to sell as a school fundraiser is one of the first issues the Government’s controversial new health adviser would like to tackle.

Public health professor Grant Schofield, also dubbed the “Fat Professor”, has been appointed the Ministry of Education’s first chief health and nutrition adviser.

He told the Herald on Sunday he would not shy away from giving the Government frank advice that would not always be what it wanted to hear.

Schofield, who is father of three boys and director of Auckland University of Technology’s Human Potential Centre, said the fact that some schools sent children home with 60 chocolate bars for their families to sell showed a “systemic failure” in attitudes towards food.

It was one of the things he hoped to help change through his new role.

“Fundraising through confectionery just isn’t a good look. Families like mine end up with 60-plus chocolate bars in the house.

“We don’t want to have to ask others to buy them and don’t want to return them so we end up with that many bars. They will get eaten and we don’t need that much sugar in our house. Surely we can do something more imaginative.”

Although schools might not have everything right, he applauded the initiative many had already taken in banning sugary drinks and allowing only milk and water.

“I’m pretty keen to see a pretty robust conversation around sugar and processed food.”

Health Minister Jonathan Coleman said Schofield would be able to give advice on the design, integration and implementation of physical activity and nutrition areas of the curriculum.

“Obesity is a serious issue . . . In 2014/15, 11 per cent of all children aged 2-4 were obese. The figures for Maori and Pacific children were 15 per cent and 30 per cent respectively.”

Schofield has come under fire in the past for his support of the lowcarbohydrate, high-fat diet.

Although there continues to be controversy over the benefits and dangers of fat, almost everyone agreed sugar and processed food were bad for you, he said.

Most people also agreed eating food that was recently growing on a plant or wandering around in nature was best for you.

The truth about sugar, p21-23