Whanganui Chronicle
  • Whanganui Chronicle home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Taranaki
  • National Park
  • Whakapapa
  • Ohakune
  • Raetihi
  • Taihape
  • Marton
  • Feilding
  • Palmerston North

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • New Plymouth
  • Whanganui
  • Palmertson North
  • Levin

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Whanganui Chronicle

Health labels hard to swallow

By Reon Suddaby - Deputy Editor
Whanganui Chronicle·
22 Apr, 2012 10:13 PM2 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save
    Share this article

While there's no doubt the death of anyone at the young age of 30 is a tragic event, in the case of Natasha Marie Harris, it's important to keep a sense of perspective around the publicity following the inquest into her death.

During the inquest it was revealed Ms Harris' main cause of death was cardiac arrhythmia, however, she also had a lack of potassium in her blood, considered likely to relate to excessive consumption of soft drink.

Ms Harris reportedly consumed about 7.5 litres of Coca-Cola every day.

Predictably enough, there have been calls for health warning labels to be placed on the soft drink. There's also a suggestion all soft drinks and unhealthy foods should be marked red under a "traffic light" food labelling system.

There's no harm in the idea, but if people think this is going to make large-scale inroads into the amount of potentially harmful foods consumed by adults, they're fooling themselves.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

At the age of 30, Ms Harris must have surely known that consuming that amount of Coca-Cola every day would only be negative for her health - yet she chose to continue.

Her family are the ones calling for health warnings to be placed on Coca-Cola - but where were they when she was consistently downing the soft drink? Surely they also knew the risk she was taking.

It's not just soft drink either. All over the world, millions of people who are well aware of the risks of an unhealthy diet regularly consume takeaway food in large quantities.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Knowing something is unhealthy clearly does not work as a disincentive for the bulk of the population when it comes to deciding whether to consume it or not. Labelling it as such will, therefore, unfortunately make no discernable difference either.

Feedback: editor@wanganuichronicle.co.nz

Save
    Share this article

Latest from Whanganui Chronicle

Whanganui Chronicle

'Immortal' Whanganui East Pool survives again

Whanganui Chronicle

'People are really appreciating it': Gallery cafe draws regulars, tourists

Whanganui Chronicle

Police name 'treasured Mema' as Desert Rd crash victim


Sponsored

Farm plastic recycling: Getting it right saves cows, cash, and the planet

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Whanganui Chronicle

'Immortal' Whanganui East Pool survives again
Whanganui Chronicle

'Immortal' Whanganui East Pool survives again

'It’s our suburbs that make us what we are, not the centre of town.'

12 Aug 06:00 PM
'People are really appreciating it': Gallery cafe draws regulars, tourists
Whanganui Chronicle

'People are really appreciating it': Gallery cafe draws regulars, tourists

12 Aug 05:00 PM
Police name 'treasured Mema' as Desert Rd crash victim
Whanganui Chronicle

Police name 'treasured Mema' as Desert Rd crash victim

12 Aug 04:50 AM


Farm plastic recycling: Getting it right saves cows, cash, and the planet
Sponsored

Farm plastic recycling: Getting it right saves cows, cash, and the planet

10 Aug 09:12 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Whanganui Chronicle e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Whanganui Chronicle
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP