A leading nutritionist believes we should stop blaming particular foods or fizzy drinks for our obesity levels and instead reduce our portions of ordinary food. Barry O'Keeffe reports.
A leading nutritionist has dismissed suggestions that particular foods or soft drinks could be major contributors to obesity.
Instead, people should be more concerned about the totality of what they eat - in other words, examine all the foods they consume, says Prof Mike Gibney, professor of clinical medicine, at Trinity College Medical School.
"It is attractive to find a culprit, especially a corporate and a manufacturer," he says. "It makes us feel good to have someone to blame." However, he says, much of a person's overweight condition is caused by items such as potatoes, fruit, cheese, fish, bread. "It is ordinary food which is being overconsumed," he says.
Such foodstuffs account for around 80 per cent of what we eat, he says, "but it is easier to focus on things like soft drinks, it makes us feel like we are doing something about the problem".
Gibney says he does not believe the intake of fizzy drinks is unduly high in Ireland and this has been borne out by other studies. "There is not a single food group which stands out on its own as a cause of overweight or obesity," he says.
There is a "big focus" on what he calls the corporate food manufacturers. "But they [ the public] are missing out on factors such as the Sunday roast" which contains plenty of calories.
In addition, he says, research has shown that around 30 per cent of all calories are now consumed outside the home.
"If the cause was fizzy drinks, then by all means ban them, but this is not the cause. It's quite simple, we become overweight by eating too much and exercising too little."
He says he does not believe the Government is doing "anything like enough" to tackle the problem: "We had an obesity taskforce and were supposed to get a couple of million to find ways to try to tackle the problem, but nothing has happened."
Gibney says he is seeking funding to evaluate the cost of obesity in terms of health, treatment, etc, and what level of nutritional intervention would prevent it happening. He says it is important to evaluate it economically so that it can be shown whether it would pay off to intervene.
Gibney says he would like the Government and the social partners to "grasp the nettle" of obesity and overweight problems.
"The social partners, the unions, the employers, Government and the NGOs should be saying "we have a problem, we have members who are overweight".
He says the unions should be buying into the concept of the problems of their members' poor diets, lack of exercise etc. Gibney says various initiatives can be taken, including providing tax incentives for people to join gyms.
Gibney, who has a global reputation in the area of metabolic and molecular nutrition, in public health nutrition and in probabilistic risk analysis, also criticises the Government for not doing enough to encourage breastfeeding. "We have the lowest rate of breastfeeding in Europe," he says, despite all the advantages it confers.
Gibney is leaving Trinity College and is bringing his entire research team of 19 people to University College Dublin to set up a centre of excellence for food and health. He moves in the autumn after 23 years at Trinity.
Gibney was speaking after a conference in Brussels last week on managing sweetness. The conference was organised by Oldways, a not-for-profit US-based think tank on food issues. It was supported by the Union of European Beverages Associations (UNESDA), the European Federation of the Associations of Dietitians, the International Diabetes Federation and the EU platform on diet, physical activity and health.
Gibney says a study which raises doubts about the safety of aspartame, an artificial sweetener and sugar substitute, has been found to be incorrect. Asked whether he is satisfied that it is safe, he said yes. He says stringent tests are carried out and stringent regulations attached. "There are far more hazardous foods around in general," he says.
The conference, which heard presentations from scientists, doctors and others involved in food and nutrition, examined the role of sugar in the diet. It concluded that sugar will always be a factor in diet, is here to stay and instead must be managed.
It also examined the use of low-calorie sweeteners and the important role they could play in combatting the problem of being overweight.
Delegates heard of the spiralling increase in obesity statistics worldwide and that on current trends, everyone in the US will be overweight by 2040 and obese by 2100. "Weight is a health problem, not a cosmetic one," says Prof John Foreyt of the department of medicine, Behavioural Research Centre, Baylor College of Medicine, in Houston, Texas. He was speaking of the strong correlation between being overweight, obese and diabetes and hypertension.
He says 30 minutes' exercise a day would make a serious difference in helping to prevent diabetes in people at risk of developing it. "Lifestyle changes work," he says.Foreyt readily acknowledges that making big changes are extremely difficult for people. "Have realistic expectations and make slow changes every day," he says.
Foreyt also says that a good stress management plan will help people trying to lose weight. "We eat more when we are under stress and so put on weight," he says.
Foreyt says people should "never give up food, but cut portion sizes instead. That way you will not feel so deprived," he says.
Speaking after the conference, Robert Madelin, the director general, Health and Consumer Protection Directorate-General in the European Commission, says, in some cases, manufacturers are "doing a lot" to reduce sweetness in their products, but even the manufacturers themselves do not really know just how much is being done. He says the commission has asked for statistics on the matter and will meet on the issue next month. However, Madelin says he does not believe legal limits on the amount of sugar in products should be introduced.