Give Up Loving Pop: How children in Blackburn with Darwen are embracing healthier habits

The Give Up Loving Pop (GULP) programme, delivered by Healthy Stadia in collaboration with Blackburn Rovers Community Trust (BRCT), has been quietly making an impact in helping Year 3 children across Blackburn with Darwen make healthier choices regarding sugary drinks. Supported by Blackburn with Darwen public health team, GULP focuses on reducing high-sugar drink consumption, improving oral health, and increasing children’s knowledge about the sugar content in everyday beverages.

GULP’s reach has been significant, engaging 23 schools across 38 classes, reaching over 1,000 children, many in some of the most deprived areas of the country. Over 60% of the participating classes were from schools in the 30% most deprived areas, ensuring that the project reached the children who could benefit the most. By focusing on these areas, the programme is helping to tackle health inequalities from the ground up by encouraging healthier habits early on.

One of the key successes of the programme was its effectiveness in reducing the daily consumption of sugary drinks. Post-programme data showed that more children were limiting their intake of high-sugar beverages to just once a week, a significant shift from their habits before participating in GULP. The programme also successfully decreased the consumption of traditional fizzy drinks (e.g., coke and lemonade) and sports drinks (e.g., Lucozade Sport). However, a slight increase in energy drink intake was noted, highlighting an area for future focus to educate children on the harms of these beverages.

Over the duration of the project, children became better at identifying drinks with high and low sugar content. The programme also demonstrated positive changes in beverage preferences, particularly among children from more deprived areas. These children reported drinking fewer sugary drinks overall and showed improvements in their oral health behaviours, although challenges remain in encouraging children to adhere to oral health guidelines in terms of brushing their teeth for two minutes or longer.

One of the standout elements of GULP was how effectively the educational content translated into real-world behaviour changes. Children showed increased awareness of the importance of drinking water, preferring it to other soft drinks to support both their education, with many bringing their GULP-branded reusable water bottles to school. This shift was not only noticed by teachers but also celebrated by families, with children proudly sharing their newfound knowledge at home.

The programme’s interactive and engaging approach, including the use of games like “sugar detective” and hands-on experiments, made learning fun and memorable. This was especially effective for children with special educational needs, who responded well to the tailored, accessible materials.

By continuing to engage local schools and working closely with public health teams, GULP is playing a meaningful role in helping children build healthier habits. Although evidence suggests children’s daily sugar consumption has halved since the introduction of the sugar tax, we still don’t full understand how the levy has impacted different sociodemographic groups, particularly children and young people from more deprived areas.