Rising levels of obesity mean we are facing a public health disaster, the Republic's leading food safety expert has warned.
Dr Patrick Wall, Adjunct Professor of Food Safety at University College Dublin and former director of the Food Safety Authority, said the country is facing a second "BSE" epidemic, one which has already impacted on human health and which carries a significant economic cost.
"This epidemic of 'Blame Somebody Else' relates to the ongoing insidious increase in obesity, at a rate of 1 per cent per year, across all age groups in the Irish population. Obesity is one of today's most blatantly visible, and yet most neglected, public health problems", he said
Delivering the Irish Medical Organisation's 39th Annual Doolin Lecture in Dublin on Saturday, Dr Wall said while success is increasingly measured in terms of material goods such as more expensive houses and cars and dearer schools, the societal trend is towards cheaper food.
"It is illegal to sell contaminated food but not illegal to sell unhealthy food. The daily exposure of the population to what is fast becoming accepted as a normal diet does not engender an appropriate level of societal concern", he said.
Referring to statistics from the Slán and Irish Universities Nutrition Alliance Surveys, which show population obesity levels rising by 1 per cent per year between 1998 and 2000 and the prevalence of obesity in men increasing 2½ times in the 10 years between 1990 and 2000, the UCD academic said these figures put the Republic "just a few years behind the United States".
"The increasing obesity in children is a major concern. We are sitting on a health time bomb. Children who are obese between six months and five years of age have a 25 per cent chance of becoming obese adults and obese adolescents are 80 per cent likely to become obese adults".
Dr Wall criticised advertising directed at children which encourages them to eat products high in saturated fats, salts and sugars.