Dr Bryan Betty is medical director of The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners.
His opinion piece is titled 'Toxic shock: A health warning- sugar is killing us'.
"It is now estimated that 11 percent of the world's (and New Zealand's) total health budget is spent on diabetes, the majority related to Type 2 diabetes – a disease that can be treated early with diet, exercise, and the use of medications.
"There's one simple thing that everyone can do to lower their risk of diabetes: cut down sugar. I'm not talking about a revolutionary lifestyle change overnight (although by all means, go ahead) but there's one thing you can do today – that everyone agrees on – to improve your health, and that's to stop drinking sugary soft drinks."
He told Simon Barnett and Phil Gifford that, as a nation, we must reduce our reliance on sugar in our food, we need further education and a possible government intervention with a sugar tax because the cost of our continued addiction is too high to society and our children.
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