WAGGA parents must do more to bar their children’s access to energy drinks if they want them to perform well at school, a health expert has warned.
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The message comes as it is revealed energy drinks available for unrestricted sale in Wagga and favoured by HSC students contain up to 21 teaspoons of sugar per serving.
Charles Sturt University exercise physiologist and energy drinks researcher Frank Marino said he sees the impact of high sugar consumption everyday in his clinical work.
Many of his patients, which include children, can attribute problems with gut bacteria and eyesight to sugary drinks.
Teens using energy drinks to study better will be left instead chasing another high, Professor Marino said.
“What happens is you have this peak and you feel good, but then you have this trough and the blood sugar level drop and therefore your brain thinks I need to look for more energy,” he said.
“Then they have got to try and find a replacement that will satisfy them and which will probably be more sugar of some sort.”
Energy drinks such as Mother and Rockstar should not be consumed under any circumstances by teenagers, Professor Marino said.
“The alternative is not to have them,” he said.
“That is a difficult position to be in, because the marketing is killing the way parents interact with their children around these things.”
Wagga Christian College deputy principal Ella Meyer said the consumption of energy drinks was discouraged but not strictly banned.
Instead, students were educated about the beverage’s dangers through PDHPE classes and the drinks were not able to be purchased on school grounds or excursions.
“If we do catch a student with one we will usually have a quiet word with them,” she said.
“It isn’t an issue at school because of how we handle it.”
Murrumbidgee Local Health District (MLHD) is in the process of banning all processed sugar drinks, which includes energy drinks, from its grounds.
It is the first NSW local health district to do so, and follows a successful ban in Melbourne hospitals.
MLHD health promotions manager Christine May said the ban was about creating demand for another beverage.
“What we want people do to is make water their number one drink,” she said.