Ireland fails to escape obesity trend
the growing incidence of obesity and strategies to prevent
obesity-related disease.
Scientists and policy makers in Ireland met this week to discuss the growing incidence of obesity and strategies to prevent obesity-related disease.
Obesity now affects 16 per cent of women and 20 per cent of men in Ireland, according to the North South Food Consumption Survey. A further 33 per cent of men and 46 per cent of men are overweight.
"The most worrying part of these statistics is that they show that obesity has almost doubled on the island of Ireland over the past decade," said Dr Thomas Quigley, scientific director of safefood, Ireland's food safety promotion board.
Keynote speaker Dr Mary Flynn, adjunct professor at the universities of Alberta and Calgary in Canada and co-prinicipal investigator in an international project on childhood obesity, commented on recent results showing that Irish children have become significantly more overweight during the past decade.
She said: "Irish children are not unique - this is the experience of Canadian, American, British and American children."
Dr Flynn has been involved in the development of community based programmes to tackle rising obesity levels among Canada's children.
"Our programme has been successful because it tackles the environmental factors that promote obesity in children. It involves all sectors of society - from the policy makers that influence school and community life, the media, local restaurant owners and retailers to family GPs and of course, parents and children themselves."
"When we deal with children the whole focus has to be on changing the environment so that when it comes to food and physical activity, the healthy choices become the easy choices," added Dr Flynn.
