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'We're fat and getting fatter - and it's a life and death issue'

Don’t like the word ‘fat’? There’s no respect in cosseting people – and the food and drink industry – about this, writes Vincent McCarthy

THE WORLD HEALTH Organisation released a report at the start of last month warning that Ireland is moving up to the top of the obesity table; on current trends we’re being told that most Irish adults will be overweight by 2030. The statistics don’t lie. Look around – we’re fat, and getting fatter.

Sorry, we should not call people fat?

Maybe horizontally challenged might be more politically correct. While we are at it, could people stop calling me bald? I would prefer follicly-challenged. My hairless brethren and I have had enough. I’m joking of course, but I do think that our need to mollycoddle people has gone too far.

Let’s be clear, the obesity crisis is a life and death issue. There is no room for skirting around the issue. Yes of course people should be treated with respect, but they should also be made aware in the clearest way possible that they are overweight.

Doctors should be able to tell their patients straight, ‘you are fat and if you don’t make these changes to your lifestyle, you are on a path of ill-health and perhaps an early death’. In fact, isn’t that the ultimate sign of respect?

Speaking on this crisis last year, Ambrose McLoughlin, previously Department of Health secretary general and now part of the Healthy Ireland initiative, warned,We now know that obesity causes every disease and makes every disease worse. Nothing does that bar ageing.  The risk seems to be most acute for young people, with Mc Loughlin pointing out: If we don’t deal with [obesity], we will be the first generation to bury our children. A stark warning.

Truly frightening

This is not just fear-mongering. The statistics are truly frightening; 20-25% of children are overweight according to most studies. For instance, the Growing Up in Ireland longitudinal study showed that one in four 9 years old were overweight (19% overweight, 7% obese). The trajectory of this crisis needs to be arrested quickly.

The simple answer would be eat less (in particular less junk food), drink less alcohol and exercise more. For many adults, this is something they choose not to do. However, children are not equipped to make that choice. Their decisions will be shaped by their environment, therefore greater responsibility lies with parents in ensuring that those early sugar/junk food habits never develop.

In defence of a ‘fat tax’…

I recognise that there is also a much wider debate on the socioeconomic factors at play when addressing obesity. However, what about if we go right to the source of that habit, the food and drink companies that produce this rubbish. The idea of a ‘fat tax’ is being considered by the minister of health. Some will argue that it would impinge on personal freedom - ‘why should I be punished for having a Coke or a Big Mac, just because someone else can’t stop at one’.

The reality is that we as a society are all paying for the effects of obesity, whether you are skinny or fat. Safefood-funded research has estimated the annual cost, direct and indirect, of overweight and obesity is €1.13 billion; circa 35%, €400 million, relates to direct healthcare costs.

It places a huge burden on the healthcare system, which is paid for by our taxes, and will be needed for all of us at some point in our lives. We know that the healthcare system is failing, this additional workload only makes a difficult situation worse.

So the real question is, if we know that mass-produced low cost-low quality fatty foods and sugary drinks are at the heart of the obesity crisis, should these companies be allowed to earn profits while the state picks up the healthcare tab?

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In economics, they are referred to as negative externalities, negative side effects on society which companies produce yet are not demanded to pay for. If a company produces food and drink that has explicit harmful effects on health, putting huge demands on our healthcare system, shouldn’t our economic model require that the associated costs be factored in at least?

…or do we value jobs and competitiveness more?

Perhaps if companies were forced to pay towards these negative externalities, they might adjust their practice. The additional tax revenue could at least go towards improving our healthcare system and funding educational campaigns on adopting a healthier lifestyle.

Of course the lobby groups for these companies will argue that a ‘fat tax’ is regressive (hurting those on lower incomes more if prices go up), as well as impacting jobs in the food and drinks industry and hurting competitiveness.

Therefore, the question on how to address the obesity crisis is as much a philosophical one, as an economic one, in terms of the society we want to have.

Vincent McCarthy is Head of Investments for Corporate Pension, Invesco Ltd. Follow him on Twitter @AskTheVMan

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68 Comments
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    Mute Bryan Mills
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    May 31st 2014, 7:33 AM

    Would a Spar have been more favourable?

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    Mute TifFanny Bush
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    May 31st 2014, 7:45 AM

    Yes it would have ,as they would have kept things hidden ‘under the tree’.

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    Mute Kenneth Finn
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    May 31st 2014, 7:49 AM

    They occupy all the 1st floor in what appears to be excellent accommodation. Does everything always have to be dublin based? A sub office is a reasonable solution imo, but can only be a gradual loss of these good jobs back to dublin over a period.

    For a precedent see brussels/strasbourg for the eu.

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    Mute winding_down
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    May 31st 2014, 10:44 AM

    The Strasbourg “precedent” costs the European taxpayer many millions of euro annually (not to mind the environmental impact of shuttling tons of paper up and down from Brussels one week per month). Everybody (Member States and MEPs alike) want it gone, except the veto-wielding French. Hardly a comparable example!

    Fact is that they’ll fail to recruit the best quality replacement for Billy Hawkes because most prospective candidates won’t countenance moving to Portarlington! Unless of course they’re allowed to be based 5-days per week at the “sub-office” in Dublin…

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    Mute Neal Ireland Hello
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    May 31st 2014, 7:23 AM

    Love how it says “beside a Central in Laois” as it that’s automatically a bad thing..

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    Mute Patrick Moran
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    May 31st 2014, 7:28 AM

    You might expect to find a post office, a hairdresser or maybe a solicitor beside a Centra in Laois. But an office tasked with policing the privacy rights of 300+ million people ?? That is just a tad Irish.

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    Mute Neal Ireland Hello
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    May 31st 2014, 7:29 AM

    An office can be anywhere. This is the 21st century, we have phones, computers a postal system. We’re having a conversation right now and I’m in a house on the ass-end of nowhere – doesn’t affect the quality of the conversation.

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    Mute Niall o' Sullivan
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    May 31st 2014, 7:33 AM

    “An office can be anywhere.” – no it can’t, not a state one.

    Do you make a living from playing Devil’s advocate with yourself?

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    Mute Thomas Maher
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    May 31st 2014, 8:34 AM

    Well it is handy to grab a breakfast roll on way into work and if its you’re turn to get the milk for the staff room.

    53
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    Mute Neal Ireland Hello
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    May 31st 2014, 8:36 AM

    What do you imagine goes on in there? People showing up with Lidl bags full of data, asking if the commissioner is in? The Taoiseach dropping in to see how the data is doing and maybe use the photocopier? Or, like most head offices, people sitting at computer screens on the phone?

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    Mute Neal Ireland Hello
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    May 31st 2014, 8:46 AM

    It reminds of the mentality that the banks used to have, where you can’t possibly be getting anything done unless your logo is displayed on a palace in College Green.

    36
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    Mute The Truth Hurts
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    May 31st 2014, 9:35 AM

    You still can’t because there’s no staff left… (Ones with a clue that is).

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    Mute Gerry in Laois
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    May 31st 2014, 9:20 AM

    Just for the sake of accuracy, it’s not actually a Centra, it’s a Gala. It changed about a year or so ago.

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    Mute Red4fred
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    May 31st 2014, 9:28 AM

    I’d get on to the DPC about that Gerry

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    Mute Joseph Dempsey
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    May 31st 2014, 7:44 AM

    Extraordinary that such a powerful & yet utterly useless organisation has an office above a local convenience store. Data protection has become the greatest tool for companies, especially telecoms & utilities to obstruct, twart, infuriate, annoy & ultimately discourage customers from making any contact with their suppliers.

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    Mute Patrick Moran
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    May 31st 2014, 7:25 AM

    If I didn’t know better I might think the govt of the day wanted to bury the DPC away in a back yard shed out of sight and mind. Oh wait ….

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    Mute Truth Patrol
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    May 31st 2014, 10:46 AM

    You’re obviously Dublin based Patrick? Anywhere out of Dublin is out of sight, gas attitude. Sure them culchies don’t know what they’re doing :)

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    Mute Neal Ireland Hello
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    May 31st 2014, 12:57 PM

    It’s minutes from the motorway network, and therefore far easier for staff to travel from there to various parts of the country than from some overpriced ivory tower in Kildare street.

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    Mute Niall o' Sullivan
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    May 31st 2014, 7:28 AM

    Good stuff Hugh/Journal.

    I, in my mind, had envisaged the DPC in a central Dublin office block beneath or part of, a state department or embassy building.

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    Mute Pierce2020
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    May 31st 2014, 7:40 AM

    This article should have a product placement warning like Fair City

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    Mute Padraig Maloney
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    May 31st 2014, 9:56 AM

    It’s not Centra any more, current owner gave up franchise

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    Mute Padraig Maloney
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    May 31st 2014, 10:02 AM

    Oh, and it’s up for sale at the moment http://www.jordancs.ie/fullpage.aspx?id=567794

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    Mute Thomas Maher
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    May 31st 2014, 10:27 AM

    Its asking price is €1,000,000. Is must be Dr evil selling it.

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    Mute Catherine Mill
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    May 31st 2014, 9:02 PM

    Well, where ever their office is, its officers do amazing work in getting data from certain state agents who try to use all kinds of tactics to block the truth. Example HSE and Probation services. But Data Commissioner was on the ball and did all the hard work for me.

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    Mute Peter Martin
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    Jun 1st 2014, 1:44 AM

    Same here. GSOC by comparison is a total and abject failure and it is a total fraud.

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    Mute Hank Schrader
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    May 31st 2014, 10:27 AM

    No more breakfast rolls for the lads downstairs.

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    Mute Peter Martin
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    May 31st 2014, 2:25 PM

    They are doing a good job of work no matter where their office is located.

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    Mute Diarmuid
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    May 31st 2014, 11:43 AM

    Decentralisation gone mad.

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    Mute Neil Dinnen
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    May 31st 2014, 10:16 AM

    It’s not a Centra anymore. Now plain old O’Hanlon’s.

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