The dietary recommendations in ROI and NI

On the Island of Ireland the most of dietary recommendations is not achieved. The basic one (fruits and vegetables) is failed in all three groups. The same situation is when analysing daily fibre and salt intake. Only adults are able to control daily sugar intake. That means, that huge work should still be done- teaching and delivering the precise information to particular groups of population.



There are some facts which may help to understand the bad eating- related situation:

· Consumer understanding of “healthy eating” include aspects such as having a balanced diet, eating more vegetables, fruit and less fatty food, however they don’t know how to introduce them into daily diet and make a permanent change in eating habits;

· Most people (70 per cent) understand that healthy eating provides benefits in terms of staying healthy;

· Television is the leading source of information on healthy eating for consumers. x

But people are bombarded with the thousands of unhealthy food ads, usually in great prices, XXL packages, with some additional offers. Even when they want to make right choices, to change their current lifestyle and to introduce the brand new eating habits they may be too weak to do it. And they fail.

Taking into account a size of the problem, its location and the raising amount of people affected by overweight/ obesity, we can no longer pretend that the current methods are effective and are working as we expect. There are operating several governmental programmes, actions/ events to prevent the weight related problems and both direct & indirect consequences, however, all those projects are not significantly decreasing the level of overweight population. Moreover the society is getting fatter and fatter with every next year. In families with parents caring excessive kilos, children are growing up with absolutely bad eating habits, with no respect against their bodies, without knowledge how to buy, prepare and eat a right food. The situation is repeated from generation to generation. With worse and worse effects eventually affecting not individual only, but the whole families, communities and the society and a country.