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TODAY THE GOVERNMENT launched its plan to fight obesity in Ireland, promising to help empower people to make healthier choices in their lives.
At the launch of an obesity policy action plan to cover the next ten years, Health Minister Simon Harris said “rising levels of overweight and obesity are placing an increasing burden on individuals and society and this represents one of the biggest public health challenges Ireland is facing today”.
The plan contains sixty specific actions and includes new healthy eating guidelines, legislation on calorie posting, the development of a nutrition policy and a prioritisation of obesity service in the health service.
Included in the plan, is a commitment to developing proposals on a levy on sugar-sweetened drinks and a review of the effectiveness of fiscal measures on high fat, salt and sugar products.
The government will also consider measures to introduce maximum portion sizes for relevant foods and drinks, on a voluntary basis initially. The effects of these measures, the policy document says, should be regularly monitored.
Advertising will also be targeted under the plan, with a submission to be made to the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland’s review of advertising to children, particularly in relation to energy dense food and drinks.
Commenting today, Minister of State for Health Promotion, Marcella Corcoran Kennedy, said there “is no single solution to addressing the causes and problems associated with overweight and obesity”.
This policy sets out effective and sustainable actions that will be taken by government, statutory and other sectors, communities and individuals. These include legislative, fiscal and environmental measures. Prevention is key and there will be a focus on children and on reducing the inequalities that are evident.”
The plan was broadly welcomed, with the Food Safety Authority of Ireland stating it offers an “unprecedented opportunity to create a healthier nation”.
Bodies representing the food and drinks industry were less welcoming.
“There are elements of the new policy that the food and drink industry can support through our work on effective measures like product reformulation, nutrition labelling, product choice and workplace wellbeing,” commented Food and Drink Industry Ireland (FDII) Director Paul Kelly.
“However, the food sector is adamantly opposed to the inclusion of policy measures, like food and beverage taxes, which are unfair, discriminatory and not evidence based.”
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Big Brother now wants to control what and how much you choose to eat. Is there no such thing as self control and personal responsibility anymore?
No,that went the way of the dinosaurs years ago. It’s getting to the stage where thinking is becoming frowned upon
@Alan Tright: Clearly not in Ireland if we’re all getting fat
It’s amazing how Ireland finds a balance between the worst parts of capitalism and the worst parts of socialism
Let’s be honest I’ve never seem a morbidly obese vegan. #justsaying
Never seen a healthy vegan either
@Alan Tright: Well if people can’t control what they eat someone has to do it for them. Diet Coke is not a slimming agent.
I’m on a vegan diet; they taste great!
Look a bit harder Homer , we’re all around you !
love that comment
Big brother needs to step in when people are stupid enough to go and get obese/fat. They need step in because those same obese people come crying to big brother to give them cholesterol medication, given them diabetes medication.
Give them type 2 medication you mean as type 1 has nothing to do with lifestyle or diet. I should know with me stabbing me skinny self 4 times a day with insulin.
@The Throwaway: Obesity tends to come from the brain craving the nutrients it needs and todays food lacking in them due to our soil lacking the nutrients it once had before we used artificial chemicals etc on Her.
The brain says- more nutrients needed here- and the body responds by eating more to try and meet that need.
Sorry red thumb people I shouldn’t let science get in the way of things
Ah, so the problem is that overfed and undexercised toddlers are not being held responsible for their own actions.
Yet they are refusing to ban advertising aimed at children from companies such as Coka Cola and Cadburys etc. Wonder why?
@Vincent Wallace: FFS the Govenrnment is Sugery, salty and fatty…..Doh!
Couldn’t agree more. They make to much money from these companies. Which makes no sense cuz if we are all obese the health bill will sky rocket
@Vincent Wallace: I’m loving it ;)
There view of what is unhealthy is so warped and wrong it’s incredible.
Tax on Sugar and Sugary drinks as the Govt were proposing, would not work. If you are going to target sugar, you may as well target fast food, fish n chips, chocolate etc etc – the answer to this, or part of the answer, is EDUCATION, and that primarily HAS to come from the parents. Pardon the Pun,but less stick and more carrot needed
@Declan Carty: Put the number of spoons of sugar in an item, on the bloody packet. Make it simple that a child can understand.
1 Coke = 39g sugar
Should read
1 can of coke = 10 spoons of sugar!
All processed foods with added sugar should do this, including all of that low fat crap. If a person bought 5 items and could do a small calculation (1 coke x 10 + 2 bars x5 = 20 spoons of sugar) I think people would wake up to this. They might only pick up one bar instead of two.
@Declan Carty: At least the tax can be used to treat the people who are unwilling to stop eating junk food when they end up in hospital from a poor diet. People really need to rethink what they eat, fizzy pop is so bad for you.
@ John smith ah come on now do you seriously think the government would invest the money gleaned from a sugary tax back into the HSE. Somehow I don’t think so that’ll go into the general pot and get used on infrastructure before hospitals
Fat cats should be on the endangered species list.
@Tom Harpur: Yep, they probably won’t. But like smoking fags, if you want to destroy your body by drinking and eating dirt you should pay a premium. There is no reason to be overweight.
@John Smith: Youre missing some vital information there John. We know now, that for decades the cig companies were tailoring their product with extra nicotine and tar to make it more addictive. It really stacks the deck against you while trying to quit.
The modern day version is refined sugar, which is highly addictive, and is being loaded into nearly foodstuff imaginable. Then when people put on weight, we tell them to cut down on the addictive product when it’s the product that needs to be looked at.
Brent , spot on .. it needs to be spelt out that way ..
Tax is FGs answer… My God they are money grabbing clueless (unts …
Yeah we should vote in those other parties that want to cut tax instead of raising it like SF……I meant AAA…….I mean Labour……I mean FF…..I mean…..sh*t
Oh wait, Renua!
How about targeting parents that shovel all the shite down their children’s gobs? It’s a form of child abuse and parents of obese kids should be charged with child abuse.
And before the clueless pipe up and say junkfood is cheaper than fresh produce that’s a load of nonsense. You would make a healthy meal for four for €15 max. If you can’t cook then Google a recipe on the millions of websites that are there, if your fat fingers can be bothered to type.
Not condoning it but junk food is generally cheaper than fresh produce. Healthy meal for 4 for €15 compared to bag Frozen Chips €1, tin of beans 40c, pizza/nuggets/sausages/lasagna all for a few Euro. Less than half the price.
@Pauliebhoy: You can make a healthy meal for 4 for €4. Chicken drumsticks, 10 for €2.50 and 49c veg from every supermarket. Why use a jar of pasta sauce for €1.50 when you can use a tin of tomatoes with a sprinkle of herbs, some pepper and salt. Tin of tomatoes is 37c, herbs about 70c, which last for ages. Cooking healthy is really cheap, it’s more time restraints or laziness.
€3.00 for a Fresh Chicken up in Supervalu on special last week, 2kg of New Season Potatoes €2.00,Packet of Marrowfat peas for 79c – I had the Bisto already in the house, Meal for 2 for €5.79,
And even enough meat /skin on the Carcass to give the dog a treat, No bones of course.
Agreed. I think this whole ‘junk food is cheaper’ is an illusion people have. Organic food, now that tends to be pricier, yes.
Each week I spend €15 – €20 in the butcher and under another €20 on fruit and veg. And thats a lot but I like fresh berries. Most other expenses are cereal, toilet paper, €3-€5 on treats and other rest on other household items. Weekly shop is roughly €70 – 100(max)
Now if I bought all frozen food items my trolly would be another €40
@Brent Weaver: Cereal is dirt too, you should change that to porridge. Throw in a banana and some berries, pretty tasty. That said I eat two boiled eggs with no bread, amazing how long it keeps you full for. I don’t eat much meat mid-week, I find pasta or stir fry or whatever is just as good without meat, so the eggs are protein.
I do. However, corn flakes are a great evening snack I find :D
Salt as a factor in obesity? Salt can be unhealthy but I don’t think that salt itself has any caloric value.
Excess salt will force you short term to retain too much water creating a bloated effect. Long term it can effect your kidneys and heart which I suppose could result in situations whereby you are too sick to partake in exercise or whatever. That may make you obese
@Callum Donnelly: Callum could you explain the mechanisms or biomedical processes involved please? My brother heavily salts everything and eats extremely salty food, has no kidney or heart impairment and no water or fluid retention.
I accept that inability to exercise combined with not restricting caloric intake could result in obesity but I’d be interested in the finding out how excessive salt consumption causes damage to heart and kidneys and results in water retention. I could then explain this.
I just checked. Salt has no caloric value.
There’s no proof that salt is bad for you
Exactly Sarah – I can’t understand why it’s even mentioned in this context.
Salt is an important part of a healthy diet, as are sugars and fats.
No expert in the area but you retain extra water as your body attempts to correct the balance that the excess salt has altered. It’s called Osmoregulation or something like that. I would presume like most things it wouldn’t be as apparent in some people as in others. I also am not sure how much salt over what length of time would be needed to tip the balance.
The retained water in some way can lead to coronary diseases and high blood pressure but we’ll need a scientist to explain that
Not structly true – and not at all true for many peope. The link between salt and fluid retention is more complicated- this peer reviewed article explains it well.. http://www.nutritionbynature.com.au/blog/-water-retention-salt-myths
@EvieXVI: Thanks EvieXVI, that’s what I was looking for. Much appreciated. It’s informative.
More taxes is what its all about .
How about more PE in schools. One primary school I know of doesn’t allow running (games or otherwise) in the school grounds. In post primary schools the drive for exam results overrides any other activity.
Yup. I think PE should be an examinable subject, properly examinable not just turn up in sorts and you passed. It should include the physical but also the nutritional side of physical education also. How to achieve a balanced diet, healthy food options etc
I love the way that the government is putting more taxes on people and pretending that they are doing it for the voters benifit. This is the oldest trick in the politician’s book. If they increased taxes in the morning there would be blue murder so what do they do? They come up with a health tax that is supposed to be for your benefit and tell you that the tac will be “ring fenced” for health education just like road tax is supposed to be for roads! There will be sugar tax first, then if no-one kicks up a fuss there will be fat tax. Next it will be cholesterol tax and on to caffeine tax. Caffeine tax is my favorite. Put on say 10 cents on every cup of coffee and “ring fence” the money to educate people about drinking too much caffeine.
Now think about how many cups of coffee people drink every day, multiply it by 10 cents a cup and you could easily “ring fence” €5 million per year while pulling in about €21 million based on 2 cups per adult per day. Soft drinks would be even more! The government makes millions which people happily pay because “it’s for their own good”.
Here’s a thought. Eat healthy, exercise more, get kids to walk to school or at least make some use of the expensive tracksuits that they wear, walk up stairs and generally look after your own health. How about teaching children how to cook a meal from scratch and that means actually peeling spuds, preparing veg and all with out the use of a microwave. Buying a ready meal from your local store and nuking it in the microwave is NOT cooking. It’s not rocket science and is much cheaper and healthier than buying prepared ready meals.
People simply don’t care enough about their health until it’s too late and lifestyle disease/premature death hits them square in the face and as for their appearance, well these days they’re attempting to socially reprogram the world and to indulge them in denial that rolls of flab and the inability to climb a few flights of stairs and not be out of breath is being ‘a real person’ and not conforming to societies demands you be a size zero.
Really it’s not even hard to loose weight, just drop your bad habits and it’ll happen by itself. The whole delusion that it’s hard is just another thing that people tell themselves as excuse to not do it or to feel less bad about failing when they get bored or to rationalize the need for some quick and easy solution someone’s selling them.
Taxing sugar and salt now because its making us fat, then followed by maybe chips and burgers, same story, then what, bread and milk? What it all boils down to is its another tax, another mechanism to take money off people.
If they need the money, they could take the 13 billion apple tax, but no, can’t do that because it’ll ruin this govs reputation! Its the reputation that matters! What reputation? They don’t have any reputation, not a good one anyway.
The Irish are hilarious sometimes. We (rightly) complain about the lack of beds in hospitals, waiting lists for services, classroom sizes etc, yet the very mention of a tax to fund a service has us up in arms. Let’s get real here. Our nation’s diet, on the whole, is leading to huge health problems. Those health problems require significant service provision. Tax will both dis-incentivise bad eating habits, while more importantly fund services to deal with health complications. Education must obviously form a larger part of policy, but let’s be clear; No one is trying to control you. No one is trying to rob you. You live in a society. Services need funding and people need to be incentivised to eat healthier.
@Himalaya Joe: just because you are right does not mean that you won’t get red thumbs.
Excellent comment.
Why not tackle lack of exercise?
@Lorem Ipsum: 90%diet. 10% exercise.
Because research shows people are more active than 10 years ago but obesity continues to rise. It also shows that while exercise helps in maintaining weightloss it is ineffective in helping achieve it
No amount of taxes will stop people eating crap unless they want to. The amount of rubbish I see people putting in trolleys in tesco etc is apalling. These same trolley loads of junk haven’t got a piece of fresh fruit or any vegetables in sight. It’s all processed, additive laden muck. Maybe if parents also gave their kids a packed lunch instead of money for rolls of white bread stuffed with potato wedges and other empty calories that would also help. And get your kids exercising instead of sitting stuck in front of the TV or games console. Sweets and treats in moderation. When I was growing up. I got a sandwich and a piece of fruit going to school. Sweets were a treat we got on a sunday and thankfully I had a mother who cooked pretty much everything from scratch and did so on a very tight budget. Personal responsibility seems to be unknown these days. As usual the government answer is yet another tax which unjustly affects those who eat a healthy balanced diet. Until we ram home healthy eating and lifestyle through intense education programs nothing will change.
Yes because this is all about how fg are concerned for our health just like water charges are for conservation tax tax tax money grabbing (unts
It’s the advertising of junk food, especially late at night that should be banned. Cadburys are terrible culprits with their “Free the joy” adverts.
Just cut benefits!!!!
When I was teenager in the 80′s I knew about healthy eating, exercise, healthy weight; there were very few overweight people my age, it’s too easy to blame everyone but yourself, extra tax won’t make a bit of difference except more money for the government!
People should have control over what they consume and if they choose to eat in an unhealthy way, that’s their free choice. If you are worried about the financial cost of obesity for society, then withdraw free health services for adults who choose to be unhealthy.
What a joke, im sorry but kids at a young age, are being given all this rubbish food, let the parents that feed them be out of pocket when the kids need medical care for obesity, put the funding to better use
Put a levy on fat people that will affect a change in their behaviour.
I had the late shift in work yesterday & schools in cork city get 1/2 day on Wednesdays & saw 2 very overweight teenagers get on the bus with cans of red bull.. If that’s not going to give u obesity with Amt of sugar & caffeine in it I don’t know what will! Really think drinks like these should not be sold to young people
Even more fun if your a diabetic, they charge you extra to not put sugar in it? How does that work?
More ta es likely, needed to fund their fat cat salaries and pensions no doubt
Ban Trans Fats (artificial fat German patent – 141,029 ). They inhibit insulin function on cell walls which expects “natural fat”.
Banned in Denmark, Switzerland, US from 2018, Argentina etc …
Ireland should first ban Trans Fats not sugar – Wrong Answer.
Avoiding Trans Fats and eating natural fat instead (Walnuts, avacado …fish etc) can completely reverse Diabetes Type 2 in 7 months.
And it would be nice if ONE day this government tackled crime. Head on like……just for a change. And why can we comment on some stories yet not others that are current and not subject to the laws of Ireland? Why is John Delaney allowed to comment but we can’t????
Governments try to use plausable reasons to introduce all taxes other than income tax. None of the monies taken in are ever used for the issues on when they are raised, all monies go directly into the exchequer. If anyone objects to the implementation of these taxes or levys, which are just taxes by another name, they are accused of various things: Object to sugar tax = you don’t care about childhood obesity! Object to carbon taxes on everything = you don’t care about the environment! Object to water charges/tax = you don’t care about sustainability! Its really just a cynical exercise, which is simply to take in as much in taxes as is humanly possible, and there are civil servants that spend all their time trying to come up with the next idea to justify a new tax/levy.
Nanny Statism at its best. There are clear mandatory labelling of nutritional values as per FIC Regulations that came in to force in 2014, people can now make an informed choice more easily than ever before.
Just ban High Fructose Corn Syrup in all processed food. Including baby food. Check out Sugar The Bitter Truth on YouTube. It’s an UCLA lecture . It’s runs for over an hour .
Now ,if you combine the sugary tax thing along with charging extra weight charges ,trip’s on buses’ planes ‘ taxi’s wear and Tare on the road’s due to overweight ,causing extra fuel to consumed ,just rambling here but you never know
Portion sizes? Does that mean that it’ll be cheaper to eat out in restaurants….? Thanks government….
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