Study: 18 Percent of Adults in Ireland Obese
Posted on: Monday, 16 May 2005, 21:00 CDT
DUBLIN, Ireland - Ireland is quickly growing fat on its economic success, a report on the country's obesity problem found Monday. The National Taskforce on Obesity, formed by the government in March 2004, found that 57 percent of Ireland's adults were overweight, including 18 percent who were obese.
Those numbers were significantly higher than a previous survey two years ago, which found 47 percent of adults overweight, including 13 percent obese, in this country of 4 million.
The boom in body weight coincides with a decade-long economic expansion in Ireland that is being driven, in part, by investment from high-tech American firms. The so-called "Celtic Tiger" economy has encouraged suburban commuting, sedentary desk jobs and an increasing reliance on fast food.
The task force's report, being presented to Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, recommends that Ireland take a European Union lead by restricting the advertisements of high-calorie snacks and fast foods, particularly those directed at children. It also recommends offering state subsidies on particularly healthy foods, such as most fruits and vegetables.
"We live in an `obese-ogenic' environment, where everything leads towards putting on weight," said John Treacy, a former long-distance runner who directs the obesity task force as well as the Irish Sports Council.
"We're now a lot more physically inactive, because we're driving our kids to school; they're not walking. We're driving to work and sitting at desks and computers," said Treacy, 47, who competed in four Olympics and won a silver medal running the marathon in Los Angeles in 1984. "Thirty years ago, people were working with their hands and what have you - they were physically active all the time."
The latest figures suggest that Ireland is quickly catching up with the United States, where about a third of adults are clinically obese.
The U.S. and Irish governments both equate obesity with a body mass index, or BMI, of at least 30. Someone who is 5 feet 4 would have to weigh 175 pounds to reach that threshold. For a 5-foot-11 person, the obesity barrier is 215 pounds.
Excessive weight increases the risk of diabetes, heart disease and other ailments.
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On the Net:
Government guide to taskforce, http://www.healthpromotion.ie/topics/obesity/
International Obesity TaskForce, http://www.iotf.org/
U.S. agency's BMI calculator, http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/bmi/calc-bmi.htm
Source: Associated Press/AP Online
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