• YouTubers Logan Paul and KSI’s Prime Hydration has been banned from some schools.

MT HAWTHORN Primary School has parents on board with its decision to ban Prime hydration drinks sold by YouTube stars KSI and Logan Paul.

The decision follows a frenzy of young adolescents storming Woolworths stores around Perth to get their hands on a bottle of Prime earlier this week. 

Mt Hawthorn parent Dan Loden said he had no problem with banning the drinks from his children’s school as they carry warnings they should not be consumed by children under the age of 15.

Mr Loden said banning the drink was the “right move”.

“[A drink] targeted to children over the age of 15 doesn’t need to be in a school where all of the students are under the age of 15 years,” the Vincent councillor said.

Mr Loden said Prime wasn’t being unfairly targetted, given that there are plenty of other sugary drinks on the market.

“Not every sugary drink has advice that under 15 year old’s shouldn’t drink them.”

Mr Loden doesn’t believe there’s been any problems in the playground with kids trying to emulate Paul – a pro wrestler/boxer – and the ban was more to do with its sugary content.

Sugar

But Paul, who has 23 million YouTube subscribers, has an aggressive marketing campaign comparing his drink’s meagre 2mg of sugar to global hydration behemoth Gatorade’s 36mg.

He’s able to do that because Prime uses the artificial sweetener sucralose, which is about 600 times sweeter than sugar, has no calories and is made by replacing hydrogen-oxygen molecules in sugar with chlorine groups.

Numerous studies have determined that sucralose is safe to consume in low doses, but George Washington University research in 2018 found that if you overdo it, the sweetener could increase a glucose transporter in the body known as GLUT4 which delivers more fat to its cells and increases the risk of obesity and diabetes.

According to the Victorian government’s BetterHealth website, giving kids artificially-sweetened drinks also contributes to a habit of seeking a sugar fix, while adding little nutrition to their diets. Their acid content can also lead to dental problems.

Prime also comes in an “energy” version, which has twice the caffeine content permitted in Australia and can’t be found on supermarket shelves, but the Chook found plenty of online websites offering to ship it to your door, including dicksmith.com.au which had a single can of the orange mango version on sale for a eye-watering $29.95 plus postage.

In response to hearing of a school banning his drink, KSI – whose real name is Olajide Olayinka Williams Olatunki – threatened to send them a “truckload” of the product.

by GEORGIE BEVAN