Health staff to ditch sugary drinks
The staff at Nelson Marlborough Health are practising what they preach by ditching sugary drinks for a month.
Board members and senior staff have signed up to the New Zealand Dental Association’s switch to water challenge, to encourage people to build better habits and reduce their sugar consumption.
General manager of strategy, primary and community Cathy O’Malley said for her, that meant giving up her once daily Diet Coke.
While it didn’t contain sugar, the acidity was not good for teeth.
‘‘I suppose it is a bit like giving up smoking, some of it is situational as well.’’
O’Malley said she was recently at the movies and went to order a Diet Coke out of habit before she remembered the challenge and got a bottle of water instead.
‘‘It’s about breaking the habit,’’ she said.
‘‘It’s easy to have a different drink.’’
The team started the challenge at the beginning of November and are currently halfway through.
The health board was one of the first to remove sugar-sweetened beverages for sale at its hospitals in 2014.
In a further step in 2016 it removed all drinks containing sugar such as fruit juices, flavoured water and smoothies from the hospital outlets in Nelson and Blenheim.
Chief executive Dr Peter Bramley said the campaign was a chance for health board members and staff to lead by example.
‘‘This is a bit of a personal challenge to the board and the executive team to say actually, we want to model to the community making those smart choices around living healthy,’’ he said.
‘‘Our vision is to live and stay well and that is all part of that picture.’’
While Bramley said he didn’t drink sugary beverages.
He did have a sweet tooth and it was important to enjoy the occasional sweet treat.
‘‘This is about making treats for treat times, this is about making smart, healthy choices around good, healthy nutrition.’’
Bramley said he was ‘‘passionate’’ about the health system and the health of the community.
‘‘It’s a simple thing, but it is actually really significant,’’ he said.
‘‘It’s a great challenge, change your habits over a month, make a start.’’
He said the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages ‘‘contributed significantly’’ to the poor oral health of children.
‘‘Those are the patterns we really want to help families change.’’