A casual approach to regulating the "invisible hand" of the fast food industry could be contributing to Ireland's growing obesity crisis, a new report from the World Health Organisation has warned.
The research tracked purchases of fast food products across 25 of the world’s richest countries between 1999 and 2008 and found that they increased in all 25 over the period, with the Republic of Ireland recording one of the highest rates of increase.
The document, written by teams based in Ireland and the US, says governments in the world’s wealthiest countries could slow - and possibly even reverse - a growing epidemic of obesity in by taking measures to counter fast food consumption.
The report is the first to look at the effects of deregulation in the economy, including the agricultural and food sectors and the resulting increase in fast food transactions on obesity over time.
Rather than looking at the density of fast food outlets or self-reported fast food consumption as past research has done, the authors instead relied on data on the number of fast food transactions per capita in 25 high-income countries, including Ireland, and compared them with figures on body mass index (BMI) in the same countries over the same time period.
They found that as the average number of annual fast food transactions per capita increased, the average also BMI rose.
The sharpest increases in transactions were recorded in Canada which saw an annual increase of 16.6 fast food purchases per capita, followed by Australia - where a 14.7 increase was recorded - and Ireland where an average increase of 12.3 transactions was recorded.
The research said that each additional fast food meal consumes saw the average BMI increase by 0.03 points. Between 1999 and 2008, the average BMI in the 25 wealthy countries studied went from 25.8 to 26.4. Anything over 25 is considered overweight.
The lowest increases in fast food transactions were in countries with more stringent market regulation such as Italy (1.5), the Netherlands (1.8), Greece (1.9) and Belgium (2.1).
“Unless governments take steps to regulate their economies, the invisible hand of the market will continue to promote obesity worldwide with disastrous consequences for future public health and economic productivity,” said lead author Dr Roberto De Vogli of the department of public health sciences at the University of California, Davis.
“This study shows how important public policies are for addressing the epidemic of obesity,” said Dr Francesco Branca, director of the department of nutrition for health and development at the World Health Organisation.
The report suggests that governments introduce economic incentives for growers to sell healthy and fresh foods and disincentives for industries selling heavily-processed foods and soft drinks with a high sugar content.
It also says zoning polices to control the number and type of food outlets in any one area could be trialled, as well as tighter regulation of the advertising of certain foods to children.
