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Waiting in the queue at the petrol station shop the other day, I noticed a mother and her three young children, the eldest probably around 7 years of age, each given a bag of self-service sweets, a bag of crisps and a can of Pepsi. It was lunchtime and the mother was clutching a large bottle of Pepsi, assorted chocolate bars and an even larger pack of crisps, topped off with some mince pies and chips from the Deli counter. “Mammy, I want my chips”, I heard. “No!” she said. “You’re not eating your dinner here – we’re going home – now come on..quickly” as she marched off, followed by her wayward children, munching away at their obviously irresistible bounty. |
Now here’s the really worrying part… being very observant as I am, I noticed that she was dressed very well and so were her children. She was carrying a Louis Vuitton bag, an expensive watch and wearing Armani (possible fakes perhaps, but I don’t think so. She bundled the children into a new, top of the range people carrier and went off. So, why’s that so worrying? Well, without sounding nor meaning to be politically incorrect, there is a strong correlation between affluent people and healthier lifestyles. That is a fact. It is shown in many studies that it is the underclass and the more deprived of society who are either poorly equipped or poorly educated about the importance of a healthy diet. Having said that, junk food is generally more expensive than fruit and vegetables, so having little money is no excuse, so it does boil down to ignorance on the part of the parents . Plain and simple. The point of these observations is that the consumption of sugary, fatty and generally unhealthy food is crossing all social levels and is on the increase. What I witnessed in the petrol station is a problem of monumental impact because the mother is teaching her kids that it is quite normal to have that sort of a diet, day-to-day, which she herself clearly sanctions as she was very overweight herself. I can almost imagine her children saying “Yuk!” to fresh fruit.
Accordingly, the children continue with this programmed bad eating behaviour unabated into their teens, by which time 2 out of the 3 will probably end up obese. As they become adults, this increasing percentage of people will start to drain huge resources from the healthcare system. It is shocking that between 1990 and 2000, the number of obese young people aged 16 - 24 has more than tripled, rising from 3% to 10%. Obese people die an average of seven years younger. They are three times more likely to develop diabetes, three times more likely to have a heart attack and three times more likely to have a stroke. The more liberally minded of you out there might say that it is nobody’s business to tell anyone how to live their lives. If they choose not to exercise, to be fat and unhealthy, end up in hospital with a heart attack or stroke and continue to smoke and eat badly – why not – it’s their life after all, isn’t it? Yes, of course that is true, BUT the impact of this behaviour is so massive that it directly costs the Irish health service some €4 billion per year and is set to rise at an alarming rate. So the reality is that the adverse behaviour of an increasing percentage of the population is costing lives because money that could be spend on genuine cases is going on people who choose to be a burden on society. If they insist on living like that, then let them pay for their healthcare themselves.
We’d soon see a change of attitude then, I am sure of that! There are thousands of cases also of such patients ignoring the good advice of their doctors by continuing to smoke, not doing any exercise, drinking excessively and eating poorly. That €4 billion per annum represents approximately 40% of the total annual Government spending on health in this Country, resulting in thousands of patients with non-preventable illnesses suffering due to lack of available resources. We all read about it – the cases of the elderly being left on trollies and patients even dying due to lack of theatre availability, waiting lists and more. Just think that a reduction in 50% of the preventable cases like the example above would result in three thousand new beds being available, together with the associated hospitals and medical services to cater for these additional patients. On average, every taxpayer pays around €6,800 per annum for the health service, increasing by 10% per annum and soon to be unsustainable. We do indeed have a crisis looming and everyone knows it. So what’s the answer you might ask? Government healthy eating education is not working and is falling on deaf ears, in stark contrast to commercial advertising. For example, companies like Pepsi Cola are pumping millions of Euro into Irish advertising and recruiting the likes of Beckham on slick advertising campaigns, giving the message to our children that being successful, stylish and good at football means you should drink Pepsi.
One small can of Pepsi contains the equivalent of 20 spoons of sugar! Would you feed your child 40 spoons of refined sugar a day? Well that’s what two cans will provide, in less than 15 minutes. Go on the Internet today and find out what damage that does to a body in one year. I dare you to. Instead of our incompetent politicians, both local and national, fighting each other about who said what and who should resign next, they should be tackling this critical issue. Of course, they are not able for it and we the Electors, let them away with it every time. If it were upto me, I would levy a hefty charge on all junk food tomorrow, ban those adverts and use the money saved to give schools “Health Eating Workshops! and free fruit and vegetables from “Around the World”, which makes it exciting and fun, as most of our children have never tasted Pau-Pau fruit or Kenyan Mangos. Now that’s a good idea I think!
Jas Kalsi, BSc(Eng)Hons, MBA, is a Management Consultant and Past President of the Ennis Chamber of Commerce |
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