Iqaluit (Apr 11/05) - Two-year-old Randy Ammaq isn't allowed to drink pop - he's hyper enough.

"He doesn't stop," says Leonard Okkumaluk from Iglulik, watching the tyke as he races around Iqaluit's Northmart.

Grade 12 student Thor Simonsen at Inuksuk high school in Iqaluit shows an iced tea who's boss. The school canteen doesn't stock pop, but his choice of drink still carries a high sugar count. - John Thompson/NNSL photos

As Okkumaluk says this, Ammaq toddles over to a display case of Pepsi, grabs two cans and makes a run for it. He doesn't get far.

Pop is a problem in Nunavut, educators and government officials agree. While diabetes levels remain low here compared to the rest of the country, there are concerns this could change soon if sugar consumption isn't curbed.

Take one bizarre incident in Kugluktuk last December, when about 30 youth broke into the Co-op warehouse and looted the building for junk food. Inside, police discovered an 18-litre water cooler that had been emptied of water and filled with pop, which the kids appeared to have drank.

Const. Dyson Smith blames boredom as the root cause of the incident. "Sugar is the least of our problems," he said.

Even so, less dramatic examples abound. In Rankin Inlet, bottles of pop always accompany youth who attend square dances and hockey games, says one teacher.

"I think it's a pretty big problem," said Susie Edgar from Leo Ussuk school. "I don't think that kids, or even their parents, realize how bad it is for them."

The Drop the Pop campaign was introduced to schools last spring for this reason, which encouraged students to survive one week without the sweet, fizzy drinks. The event returns this month, during the last week of April.

Last year, two kindergarten classes at Edgar's school tied for top prize. Each student won a soccer ball in the winning class.

Their names were entered into a raffle for a free bike.

The entire school also received their choice of healthy drinks, like juice, water and the yogurt-based Yop, for one week.

"They took it very seriously," Edgar said, describing how two weeks after the event, some students would approach her and say, "Susie, I still haven't had a pop."

"I think they learned a lot from it," she said.

She says she's sure her class will be just as enthusiastic this year.

"I think they're going to be right into it."

Lots of sugar

One can of Pepsi contains 10 teaspoons of sugar. A can of C-Plus has 12, which surprises some children who see the picture of an orange and assume it's more healthy, said Amy Caughey, a nutritionist with the department of health.

"We're not saying that people should never drink pop," she said, explaining that softdrinks should be considered "sometimes foods" and shouldn't be drank every day.

Physical exercise is just as important as a healthy diet, she said, and young people should be encouraged to eat country food.

Drop the Pop is funded by the Aboriginal Diabetes Initiative.