JOANNE HUNTtook to the streets with obesity expert Dr Donal O'Shea to find out who we are kidding about our expanding waistlines
WE’RE OVERWEIGHT and we’re in denial – that’s what a recent study of Irish waistlines tells us.
Conducted by food safety body Safefood, the survey established that only 38 per cent of us believe we are overweight when in fact two-thirds of us are carrying excess weight.
In a bid to cure us of our national delusion, Safefood has distributed 250,000 free measuring tapes through pharmacies throughout the State. Taken at belly button level, if you measure greater than 32 inches for a woman or 37 inches for a man, you are officially carrying excess weight, the organisation says.
So how do we measure up? Accompanied by Dr Donal O’Shea, a consultant endocrinologist who runs the obesity clinic at Loughlinstown hospital, we took to one of the State’s busiest streets to find out.
First up was 20-year-old John McDonagh from Ballymun.
“I’d eat anything at all – takeaways, vegetables, everything. I live at home and me ma does the cooking. I’d have a big plate of dinner every day with spuds and cabbage and a fry in the morning,” McDonagh tells O’Shea.
A sometime boxer, McDonagh says, “I drink raw eggs for my training and stamina. I’m going back training soon and I’m going to give up the smokes before I go back.”
With Eurostat figures telling us that 31 per cent of Irish people smoke, a habit linked to cancer, heart attacks and respiratory problems, O’Shea quizzes him on his habit.
“A packet of smokes would do me two or three days, I mean I’m not a heavy smoker.”
With two children under the age of three, does he watch what they eat? “Yes, I do. They’re my pride and joy. I wouldn’t let them eat what I eat.”
Will he let O’Shea see how he measures up to Safefood’s recommended 37-inch waist for men? “Yeah, go on.”
The verdict? “He just at the upper end of normal weight for a male,” says O’Shea. “His waist measures 39 inches when he’s relaxed and 37 when he sucked it in – but he’s fit and he trains a lot.”
Surprised that he could be carrying too much weight, McDonagh is sure he can snap back into shape quickly. “I haven’t trained for two weeks, so that’s why I’ve put on a bit of a belly. I’ll start back training now and I’ll lose it,” he promises.
Next we meet Sandra Priestly (66) and her husband Alan (68), from Kilcoole in Co Wicklow.
The couple are participants in the Tilda study on ageing and O’Shea asks Sandra about her health.
“I have rheumatoid arthritis, so I need to keep moving,” says Sandra, “We do a lot of walking and swimming and I’m on a really healthy diet.”
Though both keen fans of fruit and veg, in terms of eating habits, Sandra says, “I’d have one main meal and a snack . . . I’m not a breakfast person.”
With research showing that people who eat breakfast are less likely to overeat during the day and a third less likely to be obese, it might be a habit to rethink.
Alan thinks the 32- and 37-inch parameters are “too arbitrary”. Sandra says, “Everyone’s different. When I was weighed and measured, they told me I was a couple of inches over but not to worry . . . I know I have to keep the weight off because of my knees and hips, so it’s a constant battle.”
Dublin City Council workers Michael Maher (45), from Ringsend, and Noel Hyland (52), from Artane, work shifts, which they say plays havoc with mealtimes.
When working, Maher’s breakfast is a fry or a breakfast roll, “with a lot of chocolate, cake and rubbish” during the day. Smoking 25 to 30 cigarettes daily, he admits to O’Shea, “I smoke and I drink too much.”
A jeans size 34 despite eating fatty foods, O’Shea’s measuring tape confirms that Maher has “a normal waist circumference”.
“Some people appear to be able to eat what they want and never put it on,” says O’Shea of Maher’s body type.
“I don’t know how I keep the weight off,” says Maher. “I don’t do any sort of exercise. I must be a thoroughbred!” he jokes.
In a case of rough justice, his workmate Noel Hyland, who says he doesn’t eat chocolate, has never smoked and drinks only in moderation exceeds the recommended 37-inch measure.
But O’Shea concludes that in doing more physically active work and not smoking, Hyland may just be healthier than Maher, despite what the tape measure says.
Maria Hegarty (44), from Dublin, thinks the figure of 32 inches for women seems low. “Most women I know would be an average 14-16 size.”
While she always has breakfast, Hegarty skips lunch, eating again at dinner, and she walks most days.
Commending her on her exercise, O’Shea says most people don’t realise how much is necessary. “It needs to be for an hour and a half a day when you want to lose weight and an hour when you want to keep the weight off. Most people don’t get anywhere near that, you have to make a big effort.”
Best friend Tina Murphy, meanwhile, is a bit of a gym bunny. “I’d go three times a week – treadmill, weight lifting, anything to keep me in shape.”
Asked if she watches what she eats, she replies, “Definitely”.
“I never miss breakfast. I’d have brown toast and marmalade with green tea or boiling water with lemon.”
Coy about her age, she jokes, “I have a 32-year-old son, so I’ll leave you to work it out!” and the pair gets away before O’Shea’s measuring tape comes out.
Pauline Proudfoot (54), from North Circular Road, says while “young ones” might watch their weight “the ones over 40 don’t care anymore. The husband doesn’t look at you the same way he used to!”
Running a fruit stall on Moore Street, she eats about one piece of fruit a day, but says, “I’m not really good at eating, I might have a roll here and then I wouldn’t bother with anything else”.
O’Shea commends the fact that she eats breakfast every day and says the tomatoes she eats despite being fried still count towards her five a day.
A 20-a-day smoker, she admits her fitness isn’t great. “I had to walk to the bus last week and I literally couldn’t breathe, I was getting pains and aches going up through my neck.”
With O’Shea’s measuring tape recording 46 inches around the waist, Pauline is 14 inches above the recommended guide for women and he encourages her to see her GP about the pains she’s experiencing.
He says once her doctor has checked things out, more exercise will help her keep the weight down. “Even just walk to the bus. After two or three months, you’ll really feel the benefit of it, but it takes that long. It’s hard to make a change, but it really will make a big difference to you. Will you try?”
“I will. I know I have to,” says Proudfoot .
O’Shea’s verdict on the day: “What surprised me is that we are beginning to accept the overweight as normal and the early obese are now the equivalent of overweight,” he says.
He sees the 32- and 37-inch measurements as a wake-up call. “They tell you about the fat that causes diabetes and cancer,” he says. “It’s the fat around the tummy that does that more than any other fat.
“These are figures you can’t hide from. If you are saying, ‘I’ve big bones or I’m tall or my whole family was like this’ – at the end of the day, if you’re a man who is 37 inches around the waist, you are carrying too much dangerous fat. It’s a figure you can’t run away from.”
Seeing few significantly overweight children on the day, O’Shea says this is where the effort has to be over the next 10 years. “About 20 per cent of our children are now overweight or obese, that means 80 per cent are normal weight,” he says. “If we could just keep that 80 per cent at normal weight into adulthood, we’d have done a fantastic job.”
