Cheap sugary drinks, or 'sports drinks' designed for marathon runners, seem to have replaced school lunches.

We have recently been helping out with some supervision down at The Warehouse as some of our students have not been impressive with their behaviour there, and also many are going there before school and then arriving late for class. This is particularly bad on Wednesdays.

One concerning thing is what the students are buying. Bottles and cans of drink, that are packed with sugar. These range between 6- 18 tsp of sugar per serve!!!!! Others come out with bags of lollies and a can of drink. 

Sugary drinks are seen as more dangerous than sugar in foods. I encourage you to read this article

https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/news/2019/05/05/sugar-in-drinks-more-dangerous-study.html

We are worried for three reasons:

1. The effect of all this sugar on their health. 

2. The effect on their teeth. 

3. The effect of such a huge sugar hit on behaviour.

We ask you to talk to your children about this issue and check how much sugar they are consuming, how often and what they are actually eating during the day at school. This article may help in that conversation. 

https://www.healthed.govt.nz/resource/how-much-sugar-do-you-drink