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Study: NZ soft drinks have more sugar than US

Author
Newstalk ZB Staff,
Publish Date
Tue, 16 Jan 2018, 8:22AM
Our soft drinks have more sugar than the US and Australia. (Photo / Getty)

Study: NZ soft drinks have more sugar than US

Author
Newstalk ZB Staff,
Publish Date
Tue, 16 Jan 2018, 8:22AM

The call for a sugar tax has been strengthened by a new study of New Zealand's soft drinks, which shows our fizzy drinks are amongst the worst in the world when it comes to sugar content.

A Waikato University study has found they contain more sugar than those in most other western countries.

FIZZ founder Dr Gerhard Sundborn told Chris Lynch on average, we have one and a half times more sugar in our fizzy drinks and juice than the likes of Canada, Australia and the US.

He said it's time for sugar to be regulated.

"There's no real regulation around sugar or industry and that's where we need to see the Government take the lead and bring in some meaningful legislation around sugar, especially for drinks."

He said New Zealand's statistics speak for themselves.

"We've gone to the third highest obesity rate for adults in the OECD and also we've got the third highest childhood obesity rate in the OECD, so it's not really that surprising that we have very high sugar intake."

LISTEN TO DR GERHARD SUNDBORN TALK WITH CHRIS LYNCH

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