Bittersweet facts of fizzy drinks

Last weekend, we had a baby shower in Whanganui in preparation for the birth of another mokopuna tuarua. I am excited as you can imagine.

Over the years, we have reduced the amount of sugar-laden food and drink we serve at whanau gatherings and we now no longer have fizzy drinks on our tables.

As with all of my mokopuna, I want absolutely everything for them, including optimum health and well-being. More and more I'm focusing on what is naturally good for our babies, including being free of sugars, artificial colours and chemical preservatives. I know it is not always easy to make such changes and, as much as anyone else, I enjoy a sweet treat.

The impact of fizzy and other sugar-laden drinks on the oral health of our children cannot be underestimated. I have been stunned to learn that between the years 2000 and 2006, the amount of fizzy drink consumption in 2 to 14-year-olds doubled - meaning that now 25 per cent of tamariki Maori will consume three or more fizzy drinks every week.

Research suggests there are strong links between the intake of sugary drinks and poor health, including obesity, type-2 diabetes, rotten teeth, the risk of cardiovascular disease and premature death. I know many health specialists believe that growing evidence implicates sugary drinks with these common diseases and that there is strong justification for ending the sales of these products - and I support their concerns.

Sugar is addictive, without a doubt, in a similar way to tobacco and alcohol. Our sugar addiction goes back to our early history. In the 1840s, British settlement in New Zealand increased economic interaction between Maori and Pakeha. The settler desire for land resulted in a diverse range of strategies to make land available including the so-called Flour and Sugar policy of Governor George Grey in which aid to Maori was targeted in areas where Grey hoped to acquire land.

The Flour and Sugar Policy was partly an attempt to reduce Maori rebellion against the land grabs but also to create self-sufficiency. Poor health and early death rates among Maori during colonisation were often associated with diet so medical officers believed Maori health, especially infant health, would be improved if flour and sugar were added to the diet.

The relationship between our people and sugar intake therefore is not just a contemporary phenomenon. It has built up over generations and cannot be turned around easily. We need to operate on many fronts to address the impacts of that relationship with sugar - and its long-term impact on weight gain as well as the heightened risk of diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease.

Last year, I opened oral health clinics around the country, many in rural areas. I know what a huge difference those clinics will make to the oral health of our children and young people.

But the health and well-being of our communities not only depends on service provision - our health depends on our own ability to manage our own lives and make decisions for our own futures.

Submissions received by the Maori affairs select committee which held an inquiry into the determinants of well-being for tamariki Maori last year were unanimous in their understanding that the well-being of tamariki Maori is inextricable from the well-being of their whanau.

Whether we are talking identity, leadership, relationships, capacity or resourcing, the empowerment of the whanau to take back control of their circumstances is paramount.

Two years ago, Parliament's health select committee started an inquiry to find out what practical interventions can be made to promote child well-being. The committee reported back 130 recommendations including one that the Government carry out research on the possibility of regulating the amount of sugar in beverages or imposing a tax on beverages that contain unhealthy amounts of sugar.

The Maori Party wholeheartedly supports all these recommendations.

While the Government can lead change through legislation so too can our whanau.

Last week, a family from Taumarunui drove to Wellington to see me. Between them, they had lost an excessive amount of weight - more than 500kg.

More importantly, they had gained a huge appreciation of life through a healthy nutrition and exercise project they owned and drove themselves.

The motivation was set for them within their own whanau. They knew that if their mauri was out of balance, their wairua would also be out of balance.

If their capacity to live life to the fullest was restricted that would have profound physical, mental, emotional and spiritual impacts.

In doing that, they have motivated and inspired hundreds of others to join their crusade.