Fitness should be factored into housing plans, says nutritionist

Irish planners and geographers should take health and fitness into account when planning buildings or community development, …

Irish planners and geographers should take health and fitness into account when planning buildings or community development, according to a British-based nutrition expert.

There is also clear evidence that increasing suburban sprawl in Ireland has changed activity levels and nutrition habits, according to Dr Amelia Lake, a dietitian and public health nutritionist at Newcastle University in Britain.

"Housing should have a health impact assessment," she said. "For example, if somebody wants to develop in the middle of nowhere, where you have to drive to school or to get food, we should ask questions [about how feasible it is]," she said.

Dr Lake is researching the links between certain types of living environments and cases of obesity, a growing health concern throughout much of Europe.

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A number of studies undertaken in the United States have already concluded that people living in places where walking areas are limited or healthy food options are difficult to obtain, suffer obesity-related problems at a much higher rate than people in other settings.

Dr Lake, who recently presented some of her research on dietary habits to an audience of medical professionals in Dublin, is working to make the same link with obesogenic (obesity-causing) environments in Europe.

"We know that there is a link, but we've had to superimpose the findings from the US, which really doesn't work because things are so different here," she said.

And with the obesity problem reaching epidemic proportions, Dr Lake said the solution requires both institutional and individual effort.

Recent figures from the Department of Health's health promotion unit showed obesity, in common with other countries, is becoming more prevalent in the Republic.

It is estimated that almost half of all Irish people are obese or overweight and about 2,500 people die of obesity-related causes in Ireland each year.

Aside from changes in house planning, Dr Lake said small design changes could have a major impact on health.

"You can take the staircase instead of the elevator, but we often don't because the stairs are in the back somewhere and sort of dingy and filled with smoke," she said.

"Studies have actually shown that if the stairs are more accessible or more attractive, more people will take them."

And though many people think that they've done enough for their health by joining a gym or cooking with lower fat ingredients, Dr Lake said that often it was just not enough.

"We do things like get a gym membership and then drive to the gym," she said.

"There's a phenomenon called optimistic bias - we think that everyone else is doing much worse than we are, so we can't be that badly off."