Monthly Archives: January 2019

#GiveUpLovingPop arrives in Cheshire West and Chester this January, with pupils and staff across the borough encouraged to switch sugary drinks for water and milk.

Children and young people are consuming more than three times as much sugar as the maximum recommended daily intake, most of which comes from sugary drinks. A recent study by the World Cancer Research Fund found that young people are drinking on average three bath tubs of sugary drinks per year.

An easy way to reduce sugar intake is to cut out or reduce sugary drinks. Cheshire West and Chester Council along with Food Active are running a borough-wide campaign to encourage residents to Give Up Loving Pop (GULP).

The GULP campaign is aimed at young people and families to encourage them to switch from sugary drinks to water or milk. The campaign involves working with schools and their pupils to encourage them to make healthy lifestyle choices.

Nominated pupils and staff from schools across the borough have received GULP training as part of their Change4Life Champions training. The training was delivered by the School Sports Partnership groups who cover the Chester, Ellesmere Port and Vale Royal areas. Change4Life Champions from each of the schools received advice and information on sugary drinks and healthier alternatives and will share what they’ve learnt with their classmates.

The recommended daily maximum of sugar in a person’s diet is no more than five cubes of sugar for four to six year olds, no more than six cubes for seven to ten year olds and no more than seven cubes for 11 years and older, including adults. One can of Cola can contain nine cubes alone, pushing a person over their recommended daily allowance before you even consider any added sugar contained within food and other drinks.

Sugar is not necessary in the diet and especially when consumed in the form of sugary drinks can cause a whole host of health issues, from tooth decay, to obesity, heart disease and type 2 diabetes. Excess sugar intake has also been linked to certain cancers.

Councillor Louise Gittins, Cabinet Member for Communities and Wellbeing said: “Many children have too much sugar in their diet, and much of this comes in the form of sugary drinks. Not only is this causing problems for children and young people now in terms of tooth decay and weight gain, but continued over-consumption of sugar can lead to problems in later life.

“Sugary drinks can affect behaviour and academic performance. The GULP campaign will educate local young people about the benefits of switching to water or milk and we hope that the messages will be taken home, to share with family and friends.”

• View: Councillor Louise Gittins’ profile

Martin Jones from Huntington Primary School, who attended the course, said: “The training course delivered to both teachers and children was excellent. With practical ideas and theory work we created an action plan with the children to take back to their school, incorporating the Change4Life and GULP Campaign messages in a fun and realistic environment.”

Families can find out more about the GULP campaign online: www.giveuplovingpop.org.uk

See the Council’s press release here: https://www.yourwestcheshire.co.uk/NewsArticle/%7BB2FBCCB2-3EEB-4F5F-A2F6-9995BABFD6B3%7D?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=SocialSignIn

In 2019, Food Active will be sending a Give Up Loving Pop special edition bulletin every now and then to update Food Active subscribers on all things GULP and sugary-drink news.

The bulletin will come in addition to the Food Active monthly e-bulletin, which is typically circulated in the last week of each calendar month.

This edition’s highlights include:

• GULP Lancashire Evaluation
• GULP returns to Rochdale to help fight tooth decay
• Kind to Teeth funding granted to develop a Parent Champions project
• West Cheshire prepares to #GiveUpLovingPop
• Latest news including Fizz Free February, Change4Life and #RethinkSugaryDrink ‘Thirsty’ campaign
• A reminder of our wide range of educational resources available to tackle sugary drinks in the community

View the first special edition bulletin below

#GiveUpLovingPop Special Edition Bulletin

Make sure you subscribe to our mailing list to receive both mailers – sign up below.

Food Active mailing list – subscribe here

Give Up Loving Pop returns to Rochdale Borough Council, following the success of their campaign in January 2018. 

Rochdale Borough Council decided to target Give Up Loving Pop programme at a few schools across the borough, some of which have the highest levels of obesity in the borough. The council have worked with schools to ensure the delivery suited their school day – sometimes delivering assemblies to an entire key stage group, and also teaching lessons to individual classes with the Key stage 2 lesson plans.

They have tweaked some of the sessions to include food as well as drinks, the children loved the egg experiments and sugar detectives, they are continuing this at home looking in their cupboards, also we tweaked it to sugar mealtimes only to consider dental health as well as obesity and talked about visiting the dentist in appositive way for fluoride application also learning “teeth codes” deciduous dentition abcde or adult dentition 12345 etc….

All schools have been very receptive to the programme and the children have really enjoyed the interactive sessions. The intervention has allowed schools to highlight the great work they’re already doing, and has prompted some to increase their focus on children’s health.

The campaign will take place across January, with the leader of the council visiting one of the GULP sessions in school on the 30th January.

We are pleased to announce that Food Active has been granted funding to develop a Parent Champions training programme, as part of our Kind to Teeth campaign launched in May 2018 to help promote healthier drink choices in the under-fives.

The project will be working with a range of stakeholders across two local authorities in the North West, Knowsley and Rochdale, of which both experience disproportionately higher levels of childhood obesity and tooth decay.

Poor dental health is associated with deprivation (Knowsley and Rochdale are 2^nd and 17^th respectively on the IMD 2015) and data shows that 42.3% and 47.1% of five-year olds in Knowsley and Rochdale respectively suffer from dental decay. This compares to 33.9% in the North West and 23.3% across England.

Poor dental health impacts not just on the individual’s health but also their wellbeing and that of their family. Children who have dental decay may have pain, infections and difficulties with eating, sleeping and socialising. Children who have toothache or who need treatment may have to be absent from school. Oral health is therefore an important aspect of a child’s overall health status and of their school readiness and this project will address oral health issues at an early stage, helping more children to fulfil their potential.

The project will involve training up a number of parent champions, who will be asked to engage with parents at structured events based in community centres, but also when out and about in the local community – reaching parents in playgrounds, markets, libraries, community events and local play groups – this gives them a unique opportunity to interact with parents in an informal setting.

If you would like to find out more about the project, please contact beth.bradshaw@foodactive.org.uk