WIMMERA residents are being encouraged to swap soft drinks for water to reduce their sugar consumption.
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Initiated by VicHealth and supported locally by Wimmera Health Care Group, the H30 Challenge urges people to only consume water as their drink of choice for 30 days.
Wimmera Health Care Group community health manager Janine Harfield said the challenge helped people form better habits.
“Switching to drinking only water, even for a short time, can lower your health risks, kick start weight loss and save money,” Ms Harfield said.
“The rules are simple – switch from sugary drinks to water for 30 days and reap the rewards. It’s not a fad diet and it costs nothing to take part.
“Signing up is easy and you can start whenever it suits you. All you have to do is commit to switching sugary drinks for water for 30 Days.”
Participants can keep track of how much money, and many kilojoules and teaspoons of sugar they have saved since starting the challenge through a personalised online dashboard.
They can also receive email updates, text messages, and get tips, tools and helpful advice.
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During recent years, the excessive consumption of sugary drinks has been a hot topic for health care groups across the region.
In 2014, VicHealth research revealed that Yarriambiack residents were the state’s highest consumers of sugary drinks.
Statistics also showed that 70 per cent of Yarriambiack adults were overweight or obese.
To buck the trend and promote healthy living, Yarriambiack Shire Council initiated the YCHANGe program.
The partnership between council, Rural Northwest Health, Deakin University and Dunmunkle Health Services helps identify and address determining factors of unhealthy weight in the shire.
Soft drink consumption within the shire has dropped considerably since the program launched in 2015.
Ms Harfield said the H30 Challenge was a simple and easy way for individuals to make a change in their diets.
“We all know water is the best drink for us to choose so this challenge will help kick start better habits when it comes to choosing drinks,” she said.
“We encourage people who sign up to list Wimmera Health Care Group as their organisation, so we can see how many people took part locally.”
You can sign up for the H30 Challenge by heading to www.h30challenge.com.au.
