Obesity and how it impacts Ireland
While the common belief holds that consuming more calories than you burn contributes to weight gain in adult life, the risk factors that contribute to obesity are a complex combination of genetics, metabolic, socioeconomic, and life style factors, among other things. Obesity puts an unnecessary pressure on the other systems of the body that you have a much greater risk of developing anything from heart disease to type 2 diabetes and cancer. More over, it can also affect your normal day to day activities as you might give in to hypertension as obesity and hypertension are closely related.
In Ireland, the foods we individually consume and our lack of physical activity as a result of a complex life style system that we engage in, as growing research evidence suggests that energy dense foods promote obesity is impressive and convincing. Of the foods that are high in fat, sugar and starch the potentially most significant promoter of weight gain is fat and foods from the top shelf of the food pyramid including spreads like butter, mayonnaise, and margarine, cakes and biscuits, and confectionery, when combined are the greatest contributors to fat intake in the Irish diet.
It is an alarming fact that Irish children are emulating their adult counterparts and are also consuming large amounts of energy dense foods outside the home as a recent survey revealed that slightly over half of these children ate sweets at least once a day and roughly a third of them had fizzy drinks and crisps with the same regularity. The World Health Organisation has expressed serious concerns at the high and increasing consumption of fat rich foods and sweetened carbonated drinks by school going children in Ireland, which contribute to their obesity.
The evolution of the office and corporate life styles over the decades has been a chief factor contributing to a decline in demanding physical activity at work or at home. Physical inactivity, lethargic "off-the-monitor" life styles, and increasing dependence on fat rich, off the shelf packaged food is an determinant of body weight, that is contributing to obesity.
Today, obesity not only gives rise to multiplication of the risk factors that contribute to a serious medical condition or a chronic disease but also exposes people to serious psychosocial problems due mainly to widespread prejudice against fat people. Prejudice against obese people seems to border on the socially acceptable in Ireland. It crops up consistently in surveys covering groups such as employers, teachers, medical and healthcare personnel, and the media. It occurs among adolescents and children, even very young children.
As a significant contributor to premature death, obesity is associated with excessive morbidity and serious psychosocial problems which would damage the collective welfare of citizens. It also affects productivity as days are lost at the workplace due to illness arising from obesity and output foregone as a result of premature death and so, government intervention is necessary and warranted. The EU environmental cost benefit method estimates these deaths alone may be costing the state as much as €4bn per year.
A simple and effective recourse from obesity is to set aside 45-60 minutes every day for a concentrated effort at moderate or one step higher physical activity for adults, and at least 60 minutes per day of moderate physical activity children.
In Ireland, the foods we individually consume and our lack of physical activity as a result of a complex life style system that we engage in, as growing research evidence suggests that energy dense foods promote obesity is impressive and convincing. Of the foods that are high in fat, sugar and starch the potentially most significant promoter of weight gain is fat and foods from the top shelf of the food pyramid including spreads like butter, mayonnaise, and margarine, cakes and biscuits, and confectionery, when combined are the greatest contributors to fat intake in the Irish diet.
It is an alarming fact that Irish children are emulating their adult counterparts and are also consuming large amounts of energy dense foods outside the home as a recent survey revealed that slightly over half of these children ate sweets at least once a day and roughly a third of them had fizzy drinks and crisps with the same regularity. The World Health Organisation has expressed serious concerns at the high and increasing consumption of fat rich foods and sweetened carbonated drinks by school going children in Ireland, which contribute to their obesity.
The evolution of the office and corporate life styles over the decades has been a chief factor contributing to a decline in demanding physical activity at work or at home. Physical inactivity, lethargic "off-the-monitor" life styles, and increasing dependence on fat rich, off the shelf packaged food is an determinant of body weight, that is contributing to obesity.
Today, obesity not only gives rise to multiplication of the risk factors that contribute to a serious medical condition or a chronic disease but also exposes people to serious psychosocial problems due mainly to widespread prejudice against fat people. Prejudice against obese people seems to border on the socially acceptable in Ireland. It crops up consistently in surveys covering groups such as employers, teachers, medical and healthcare personnel, and the media. It occurs among adolescents and children, even very young children.
As a significant contributor to premature death, obesity is associated with excessive morbidity and serious psychosocial problems which would damage the collective welfare of citizens. It also affects productivity as days are lost at the workplace due to illness arising from obesity and output foregone as a result of premature death and so, government intervention is necessary and warranted. The EU environmental cost benefit method estimates these deaths alone may be costing the state as much as €4bn per year.
A simple and effective recourse from obesity is to set aside 45-60 minutes every day for a concentrated effort at moderate or one step higher physical activity for adults, and at least 60 minutes per day of moderate physical activity children.
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