SUGAR SMART
SUGAR SMART is a nationwide campaign supported by charity Sustain, which looks to improve health by promoting healthy diet and reducing sugar consumption.
Cornwall is leading the way with SUGAR SMART! It is already active in many areas including healthcare, catering, and workplaces, and Cornwall Healthy Schools want to back Cornwall's SUGAR SMART campaign by supporting the education sector.
Why should we get smart about sugar?
- Consuming too much free sugar as part of a poor diet has been associated with a number of long term illnesses and poorer health in general
- Today’s children are the first generation in history predicted to have a shorter life expectancy than their parents
- Tooth decay is the leading cause of hospital admissions in children
- Healthier children are happier and both of these are associated with better learning and educational attainment
How do we become SUGAR SMART in School?
It's easy to become SUGAR SMART in school and is a great first step towards improving food and the nutritional environment. Sign up on the website to access a wide range of resources for you to use on your campaign, as well as different ideas of things you can do in school! Ideas include:
- promote healthy packed lunches
- remove sugar-sweetened drinks
- stock healthier food and drink
- create a SUGAR SMART display
- improve vending machine or tuck options
- hold a SUGAR SMART quiz
- set SUGAR SMART challenges
- give staff cooking lessons
We also offer a SUGAR SMART in Schools training session for staff who would like to become a SUGAR SMART ambassador in school. Please contact your Healthy Schools Advisor for more information.
It is easy to demonstrate your efforts in becoming SUGAR SMART by achieving a certificate! This can be gained independently or used as evidence towards your Healthy Schools Award.
From September 2019, our SUGAR SMART certificate process is changing. These changes come following the introduction of a certificate by the SUGAR SMART campaign and therefore we have aligned our certification process. Now, as well as your SUGAR SMART efforts being endorsed by the Healthy Schools team, your certificate will also be co-signed by the national campaign. The previous SUGAR SMART criteria is still a great resource to base your campaign on and to gain ideas. Please feel free to read the criteria, and contact your Healthy Schools Advisor for more information by emailing healthy.schools@cornwall.gov.uk.
SUGAR SMART in School awareness session
As part of our food and nutrition support offer, we have developed a SUGAR SMART in School awareness session. This provides a short guide to the sweet stuff and lasts about 1.5 hours. In this session, we cover what sugar is and where it comes from, how sugar is used by the body, the physical, mental, and oral health implications of excess sugar consumption, nutritional label reading, and things to try in school. This session can be delivered as a twilight or part of an inset day, and can be adapted for delivery to parents.
As with all of our training, our SUGAR SMART support is completely FREE!
We at Cornwall Healthy Schools want to give children the best opportunity to achieve their optimum health, in both childhood and adulthood, which is why we are fully supportive of the nationwide SUGAR SMART campaign and of yours in your school! Please visit the Sugar Smart website for more information and to register!
Contact your Healthy Schools Advisor and start becoming SUGAR SMART today!
Penryn Primary Academy took part in Fizz Free February in 2019 in a bid to reduce sugar intake from fizzy drinks - see their video below to find out how they did it!
cola_COLA B from Jamie Reed on Vimeo.