All posts by Beth Bradshaw

Sheffield City Council’s Public Health team are in the final stage of preparing for a three week GULP challenge in three secondary schools across the city region.

In Sheffield, more than one third of children start secondary school at an unhealthy weight. A further two fifths of 12 year olds also have dental decay – and sugary drinks are a major part of the problem.

In March, the campaign will be launched in three schools to target sugary drinks consumption in year 9’s. Teachers will be delivering a range of the GULP school-based resources, including assemblies and PSHE lessons on sugary drinks in the diet, energy and sports drinks and finally the marketing of sugary drinks to children and teenagers.

Following which, students, along with parents and staff, will be invited to Give Up Loving Pop for three weeks! All year 9 pupils who sign up to the challenge will receive a GULP water bottle and handy information leaflet to help children make more informed, healthier choices with their drinks. The school will also be provided with promotional materials to display around the school and promote the key messages of the campaign, such as pop up banners and posters.

Sheffield are excited to see the results of the challenge and behaviour change will be monitored through questionnaires before and after the GULP challenge. We hope that the messages will be cascaded through the school and even make it home to influence families and friends in the long term.

To find out more about our resources, follow this link to our latest mailout.

Rochdale Public Health with the Healthy Heroes campaign are in the final stages of preparing for a three week GULP challenge across two primary schools within the area.

This January, the Healthy Lifestyles team will visit the first St Luke’s C Of E Primary School, Heywood and Sacred Heart R C Primary School, Rochdale, to deliver an assembly for all year 4 and 6 students on the harms related to sugary drinks.

Pupils will be encouraged to sign up to the challenge in school and will receive a GULP water bottle and information leaflet to encourage them to complete the three week challenge. Parents, older siblings and staff will also be encouraged to sign up to the challenge using the online GULP portal and receive weekly, encouraging emails on how far they have come, detailing the calories, sugar and money they may have saved through switching to water. The healthy lifestyles team, Link 4 Life, will also deliver the GULP Key Stage 2 resources to year 4 and 6 pupils and other visual materials will be displayed around schools such as pop up banners, invitations and water bottles to promote the key messages of the campaign.

The first two schools will start in January, with the following two starting in the summer term in April with a view to roll it out to all schools in the near future.

Councillor Sara Rowbotham, the council’s cabinet member for health and wellbeing, said: “Improving the health of our borough’s children is a key priority for us, so I am very pleased and excited that our schools are taking this fun and fantastic step towards healthier lifestyles.

“We know that reducing the amount of sugar we eat and drink is a great way to prevent nasty illnesses like heart disease and type 2 diabetes developing in the future; so I’d like to urge everyone to take part in the challenge and even continue beyond to see what difference it can make to your health.”

Children in Rochdale experience some of the highest levels of dental decay in England, with a further 38% of them leaving primary school at an unhealthy weight. That’s campaigns like Give Up Loving Pop are so  crucial to help raise awareness of the links between excessive consumption of sugary drinks and poor health outcomes, such as dental decay, weight gain and more. We hope that the GULP Campaign will really make a difference in the borough by helping children to make more informed, healthier choices in the drinks they consume and encouraging them to share this information to influence parents, siblings and friends with their drink choices too.

To read the full press release and find out more, follow this link to the Rochdale News website.

If you are a resident in Rochdale and want to take up the 3-week #GULPChallenge, there is still time to sign you and your family and friends up here!

Salford Public Health and CCG are in the final stage of preparing for a three week GULP challenge in St Patrick’s RC High School. This January, the GULP team delivered an assembly to year 8 students on the health harms related to sugary drinks. Teachers will then be delivering some of the GULP PSHE lessons, which will discuss the marketing of soft drinks, the sugar tax and energy/sports drinks. Following which, students, along with parents and staff, will be challenged to Give Up Loving Pop for three weeks on the 22nd January! All year 8 pupils who sign up to the challenge will receive a GULP water bottle and handy information leaflet to help children make more informed, healthier choices with their drinks.

Pupils will be encouraged to sign up to the GULP challenge via the online portal and  receive weekly, encouraging emails on how far they have come, detailing the calories, sugar and money they may have saved through switching to water. The school will also be provided with GULP PSHE resources and lesson plans to be delivered to year 8’s, alongside other visual materials such as posters, leaflets and water bottles.

Salford are excited to see the results of the challenge and behaviour change will be monitored through pre and post-challenge questionnaires. We hope that the messages will be cascaded through the school and even make it home to influence families and friends in the long term.

“We are delighted to get the Salford GULP Campaign up and running, as reducing sugar consumption in our local authority is a key priority. It has been fantastic to see the pupils at St Patrick’s RC engage with the campaign, and we hope the assembly and lessons encourage them to pledge to the GULP challenge and give up sugary drinks for 3 weeks. Targeting teenagers is really important, as they are the biggest consumers of soft drinks in the UK which can have many negative impacts on health, including weight gain, type 2 diabetes, poor dental health and heart disease. Following the campaign with GULP, we hope that the pupils think twice about consuming sugary drinks in the future and opt for healthier drink options, such as milk and water”

Michelle Whittaker, Public Health Strategic Manager at Salford City Council and Project Lead for the Salford GULP Campaign. 

The campaign was featured on the Salford Quays website late last year, which you can find here. 

If you are a resident in Salford and want to take up the #GULPChallenge, there is still time to sign you and your family and friends up here!

Follow the @gulpNOW, @SalfordCouncil and @PHealthSalford twitter accounts for updates and if you are taking the challenge don’t forget to tweet us during the challenge to see how you’re getting on!

We are pleased to announce Food Active’s Give Up Loving Pop campaign was awarded a Highly Commendable Award at the Sugar Reduction Summit last night, coming joint second with Action on Sugar to the winners the Food Teachers Centre Community in the category “Best Sugar Reduction Awareness Campaign”.

The Awards ceremony followed the Sugar Reduction Summit held at the Royal Society, London – discussing the role of public health, science and industry in sugar reduction efforts.

Also nominated in this category was Beat my Addiction, Bow Lane Dental, Food Standards Scotland, Knowsley Met Borough Council, Liverpool City Council (Save Our Kids From Sugar campaign) and Sustain/The Jamie Oliver Foundation.

Congratulations to all the entries and winners for their continued hard work in the field of sugar reduction.