Obesity in Ireland

There's no denying that we are getting bigger, eating more fast food...

And living generally very unhealthly lifestyles. Maybe this has something to do with all the benefits the Celtic Tiger has brought with it: corporate lifestyles, fast food, big cars with “sat nav”, wide screen TVs, leather couches, computers that do everything but take out the rubbish…of course we're getting lazy. But has it gone past the point of no return?

A few generations ago, the majority of Irish people worked on the land or did other forms of physical labour, they cycled or walked a lot more, the country struggled economically and the people didn't have time to sit on their backsides getting fat. Maybe we would have been better off staying a struggling country; at least that way obesity wouldn't be accountable for many of us dying each year.

This major change in lifestyle has caused the obesity levels of Irish people to jump hugely.

“In Ireland the prevalence of obesity is greater in men than in women. 14% of men and 12% of women are obese and in certain regions this figure rises to 18% and 15% respectively.” (Irish Health Promotion Unit)

Those are crazy figures! It's ridiculous to think that these amounts of people in Ireland are obese, not overweight: OBESE. Obesity is directly associated with a number of serious diseases including diabetes, heart disease, some forms of cancer and high blood pressure. An increasing number of Irish people are dying younger and many of these deaths can be directly associated with these conditions. All because Paddy is too lazy to walk to work or too busy to have a balanced lunch and instead of going for a walk to relax after work, goes to the pub.

What's most worrying is that the numbers of obese children and young people are also on the increase. Irish kids don't play outside anymore…they play on the computer, they don't go for walks with their parents…they watch TV, and instead of bacon and cabbage for dinner they have McDonald's and coke. Which basically means that, overall, Irish kids aren't so much Irish kids as they are American kids with Irish accents!

But hey, maybe this is the way evolution was supposed to go. I mean, everything has been getting bigger as the world develops: buildings, cars, nuclear weapon storage facilities, holes in the ozone….why not people? Maybe its all part of an elaborate plan to kill us off one by one using our own greed and laziness. Yeah, it's all part of the plan…I'm starving…

By: Leeann Gallagher

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