Slurpees and frozen cokes, ice drink that make summer more bearable, but how bad is it really for you. We tend to consume anything as long as it tastes good, sometimes without worrying if there are any repercussions.
LiveLighter and Rethink Sugary Drink has started a new campaign called “Don’t Be Sucked In”, hoping they can encourage the people of Victoria to rethink what these cold beverages are actually doing to their health.
An image of a person drinking fat from a large cup is being used to confront the public about their excessive consumption of these very sugary drinks. The $3 Slurpee contains more than a whopping 20 teaspoons of sugar, which really isn’t good for anyone. And how is your body supposed to process all of it? Our bodies weren’t designed to consume such large amounts sugar.
The campaign hopes to help people see how these extremely sugary drinks can negatively affect their health in the long term.
Having more sugar than most soft drinks in some cases these beverages can be a contributing factor to gaining weight, tooth decay, obesity, 13 types of cancer, type 2 diabetes, strokes and kidney and heart disease.
The age group between 2 and 16 are minimally drinking one a drink a day, and some are even drinking more than three. Whilst weight gain tends to be the campaigns main focus point, tooth decay has also been highlighted because the consumption of these sugary drinks is one of the leading causes of tooth decay.
1 in 4 of these children suffer from tooth decay, that’s a staggering 27%.It’s easy to see why we as adults shouldn’t be buying nor keep any of these types of drinks in our homes. The kids don’t even realize how much sugar really is in one of these drinks, never mind the one to two a day that they drink. It’s time for parents to take a stand and teach their kids healthy habits from a young age. With this guidance, it will help the children of Australia make better choices one day when they’re older.
It will also mean fewer cries from a tooth ache in the future, trust me, your dentist will thank you because no child deserves to feel the pain of an aching tooth.
Busses and trams in Victoria have been running with ads, hoping that the people will see that drinking one of these sweet drinks literally accounts for half a week’s worth of sugar. The campaign hopes that the people will rather reach for a healthier alternative to cool off like a glass of ice-cold water or maybe even make your home-made ice-tea with a touch of honey.
A levy on these sugar-laden drinks is what organisers working with the campaign are hoping to institute, to reduce the consumption of these sweet death traps.
Believing the levy will help deter people from slowly destroying their health, they hope to help regain at least some of the heavy costs that obesity has incurred. They also hope to alleviate the strain it is putting on the public health care system.
By choosing healthier alternatives you can help the campaign and its organisers by making sure that your health doesn’t suffer either. There are plenty of drink with zero sugar and calories nowadays on the market, you just have to find one you like. Or even better stick to your daily water. We all have to drink a certain amount of H20 to function healthily anyway, so why not swap that slurpee for a bottle of cold spring water.