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JUST OVER ONE third of Irish people (37%) have a normal weight with 60% of adults here overweight or obese, according to the latest Department of Health’s Healthy Ireland survey.
Elsewhere in the survey, it shows the level of smoking dropping in Ireland to 17% of the population with just over half of men and less than half of women achieving the minimum level of recommended physical activity a day.
The stats are compiled based on a survey of over 7,400 people aged 15 or over who were interviewed between September 2018 and September 2019.
Using the body mass index (BMI), it classifies people overweight with scores of over 25 and obese with scores in excess of 30.
In the survey, 37% of people were found to be overweight with 23% obese. Those living in deprived areas are more likely than those in affluent areas to be overweight or obese (65% to 55%).
Minister of State for Health Promotion Catherine Byrne said these levels “remain a great cause for concern”.
“While levels appear to be stabilising, there is no room for complacency,” she said. “This year’s survey shows a small increase in the number of people meeting the guidelines on physical activity, which is encouraging.”
The latest survey has encouraging statistics on smoking, with the number of current smokers in the country down from 20% last year to 17%. In 2015/16, that figure was 23%.
The percentage of the population that smoke daily is 14%, down from 17% last year. In the last year, 40% of smokers have made an attempt to quit, with health concerns being the prime motivator. Three-quarters of people, meanwhile, support plain packaging on tobacco products.
Minister for Health Simon Harris said: “I welcome the findings of this year’s Healthy Ireland Survey and in particular the continued drop in the smoking rate.
“This shows that our multi-pronged approach, with legislation, support for smoking cessation and policies to denormalise smoking in our society, is bearing fruit and we are heading in the right direction to being a tobacco-free Ireland.”
Also within the survey is data on how the nation is sleeping.
The average person gets around 7.1 hours of sleep on a typical night. Those who are overweight or obese get less sleep on average than those of a normal weight, according to the survey.
Healthy Ireland also looked at the health of people with caring responsibilities and found almost one in ten of us provides regular unpaid personal help to a family member or friend with a long-term health problem or disability.
It also reports that 42% of these carers report that they themselves have a long-standing illness or health problem.
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I nearly dropped my big mac after reading this!
@Jack Coldrick: Wait until you cannot get treatment in hospital in the future because these gluttons sink the system once and for all, it won’t be funny not one bit.
@Jack Coldrick: aw no!!!!
@Peter Hughes: having a bmi of 25 or more classes people as obese and that puts a greater number classed as over weight and its BS
@D H: no it doesn’t. a BMI of over 25 is overweight. A bmi of over 30 is obese. my ideal range gives me about a stone to play with. I’m only 5ft so that’s quite a lot. When I’m at the lower end I feel great, when I’m at the higher end I feel over weight and know I need to get my arse in gear. So many people are in denial of their weight, so many men think because they wear the same size trousers they have not gained weight but dont take notice of the big fat belly hanging over their belt. women take to wearing active wear and loose tops. BMI is a guide if you are in the over weight category or obese category then take responsibility and pay attention to your lifestyle
@Jack Coldrick: Are you Trump lol.
when I was in the UK we had a low income because my husband was studying. We received vouchers that could only be used for fresh fruit and vegetables or milk. I thought this was a great way for low income households to get good food.When you have a low income the first place to cut your cloth is always food. poor food choices lead to weight gain.
@LittleBee: Are you suggesting that obesity is a low income problem?
@Ed: Poverty is strongly corrolated with obesity.
That is a well known connection.
It can be very difficult to make good choices and have access to fresh food etc. when you’re struggling financially.
Education is a strong indicator of poverty, and the less educated don’t have the same knowledge of what’s “good” v “bad”.
Obviously, I talking statistically, not anecdotally. There are many that do not correlate, but enough so to make it statistically relevant.
@LittleBee: in the 80′s people on the dole got butter vouchers! Lol overproduction. They couldn’t give it away, literally because people traded them in the local shops for cigerettes. Hah.
@Ed: eh well yes and the statistics back this up. Of course anybody of any income level can be obese and make poor food choices but when you are poor you are forced to make poor food choices. I speak from experience , we are surviving on less at the moment as I am now studying and the quality of food is not the same as when we have a joint income. I cook , I understand nutrition , I can make 2 chicken breasts feed a family of 6 but on weeks when money is really tight it’s very easy to cut your cloth and buy cheap processed crap. Of course there are other factors such as poor education around food, being time poor and just over eating. But they are choices people make for themselves. So if someone is on a low income why not supplement with the ability to buy fresh food.
@Marie Broomfield: ha ha yes I remember, dont think you would get away with that now. I got £10 a week in fresh veg in the UK and I’ll tell you I really appreciated it.
BMI isn’t an accurate system as it’s purely based on weight Vs height, ignoring body fat %.
So if you have high muscle mass for your height you are deemed overweight
@Pete: True & it also misrepresents people with high body fat and low muscle mass, which is fairly prevalent these days. These people are normal weight & BMI, but have unhealthy levels of fat (high) and muscle (low). The point is BMI can be unreliable when applied to an individual, however when working with large sample groups / populations (no pun intended
@Bruce Wardrop: it is a convenient & accurate enough method to estimate what is going on in that population. (sorry – only posted some of my previous comment – don’t know why!)
@Pete: if you have high BMI because of high muscle mass you will still be loaded by a life insurance company because you are putting unnecessary weight on your heart. It’s still not healthy to have a high bmi for your height from muscle mass . As is what the other commenter about low muscle mass and high fat, as is low BMI. It is all just a gauge which is used to generalise. But you only have to look around you to see we are getting fatter as a nation and it is not because everyone is put pumping weights. I’ve seen guys at my gym admiring their muscles and kissing their guns and then I look down and see these tiny little legs that can barely hold their weight lol.
@Pete: I understand that BMI isn’t always seen as a perfect indicator but there are other Irish studies that corroborate these findings with additional measures too.
TILDA which looks at over 50′s in Ireland uses BMI, Waist circumference stratified by sex differentials, waist to hip ratios, as well as a battery of health assessment measures to look at obesity and physical activity in the Irish population. You can look at the reports on their website which go into much more detail than the study above.
Supersize me!
A guy in a bar told me that Brian O’Driscoll in his prime was fat according to his BMI. Mind you, this guy was about 18 stone and pregnant with twins.
@jamesdecay: had the same gp as brian, he told me brian was borderline obese according to bmi charts.
Om nom nom nom
@Seriously stunned: with sauce on ???
What about studies that say obese people have the same life expectancy as those classed with “normal bmi” (don’t get me started on how they defined normal and where they got the idea this was a healthy weight), and that those who are classed overweight actually have a higher life expectancy than those of normal bmi? That doesn’t fit the agenda of the multi billion diet and health industry though does it?
@Dino: BMI is limited and ‘healty’ weight can be subjsctive but that study also shows the biggest negative impact on life expectancy for BMI of 35 and over
@Peter Mcgrath: yeah fully agree, my point was more with how they even decided “normal” bmi, it was a completely arbitrary range with no science behind the healthiness or otherwise yet it is now being used as a stick to beat people with and promote the multi billion dollar “health and wellness” industry. You have people who should know better preaching to everyone that we are in the midst of a crises with no actual factual evidence to back it up. If they showed the science behind the over 35bmi life expectancy and told the truth about the rest then people would be more likely to take them seriously.
Children learn a load of useless information in school. Should learn more about things that really matter: food and where their waste goes etc. when their parents throw it in the fire, put it in recycling bins, etc.
@Monty Donotno: they do learn about food and waste
@Monty Donotno: what useless information do they learn at school? Not all learning should be confined to practicalities.
40 years ago in our town there was only three take away chippers. Now there are three Indian restaurants/take aways; six Chinese take aways; Five pizza parlors and seven chippers. Then we wonder why we are all heading towards being obese. Medical treatment will be unavailable to the next generation as the hospitals will be full of people with diabetes, coronary problems and mobility problems.
If the Irish government could take its responsibility of overseeing the health and welfare of its citizens. I know each person has to take responsibility for the choices they make throughout their daily lives. But if government could protect us from the over abundance of processed, fast, unhealthy food options that presently litter supermarkets. Our Irish culture of drinking alcohol, over-reliance on potatoes, white bread, sedentary lifestyle and obvious dependence on tv and social media does not help in any way. Our cold and wet weather isn’t conducive to the development and promotion of using cycle lanes, walking, or public transport. We all (individuals, government and companies) have a role in education, implementation and regulation
@Gar Mer: Don’t be blaming the potatoe….. If you cook them the right way and eat them in moderation and without a pound of butter on them, they are a healthy food
@Gar Mer: The modern lifestyle of long commutes and little free time contributes to obesity. If you’re sitting in traffic for 4 or 5 hours a day 5 days a week it’s not going to help. If you sit at your desk working to make up for time lost in traffic instead of going for a walk that’s not going to help. If you eat junk food and snacks to stay awake because you can only get 5 hours sleep during the week that’s not going to help. If you eat ready meals or junk food when you get home because you’re too tired to cook from scratch that’s not going to help. Then there’s the temptation to break out at the weekends and reward yourself for a hard week with a nice meal, a bottle or two of wine and a few beers.
If the government cares about the health of Irish citizens (I strongly suspect it doesn’t, it only cares about finding extra ways to tax us without implementing workable solutions) they should take a serious look at how placing most jobs in a few places has forced people to spend most of their free time during the week commuting. People are forced to eat badly because they have no time to cook. They can only fit in 5 or 6 hours sleep a night. The public and private transport system means people spend twice as much time travelling as they should.
Cheap carbohydrates and junk food is more profitable than proper nutritious food, that is why supermarkets give it pride of place. Tired shoppers see this sort of food first and are often too exhausted to look for nutritious food in supermarkets let alone go home and cook it. Then the poor diet makes them even more tired. It’s a vicious circle.
Plenty in the Dail but hay having a pub in your workplace helps?
Its not “Fast Food” is the problem its “Fake Food” …. artificial fats used in Deep fat frying and also in most commercially baked goods … cookies, buns, biscuits, crisps, pizza base, quiche base, apple tart base … breads , coffee creamer, chewing gum …
US consumption of “Fake fats” is 2.2Kgs (4.6 lbs) per annum. Now banned from Aug 2018. Not banned in EU or Ireland yet.
Fake fat causes Diabetes type 2 and Alzheimers due to accumulation in cell membranes … inhibits insulin receptors in cell wall and also causes wrong cleave of Amyloid protein in the cell wall … offcuts are toxic and kill brain cells leading to holes in the brain and loss of brain function and memory …
amusing to see focus on “Fast Food” …. a distraction … a correlation … not causation.
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