What We Eat
Goliaths of the world food industry are pleading the
defence of the consumer choice.
 Two out of every five adults are overweight, and one in
five is obese.
 300,000 of our children are overweight or obese and this
figure is increasing by 10,000 per year.
 For every person killed on our roads, five people die
prematurely due to obesity. The annual cost to the
economy is estimated at 4 billion.

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Constant “Creep” In The Nation’s
Waistline.
 We
consume one million calories per year and
hopefully expend it all on living.
 Eat more and exercise less and the system goes out
of whack.
 The less exercise we take the more likely we are to
binge or comfort eat.
 The heavier we get the less likely we are to take
exercise.
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Disturbing Trend
 There
are now as many people, overweight in the
world as there are underfed and underweight.
 Increase calorie consumption due to increasing
prosperity.
 Add to the equation, video games, marketing of
fast food and chocolate.
 People risk heart disease, stroke, liver disease,
colon cancer, diabetes and osteoarthritis.
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Health Experts Focus On Bad Food
As The Culprit.
Our fondness for junk food low in nutrients but high in
energy. (Food Safe Authority)
 This food is clogging up children’s arteries, it is like
putting diesel in a petrol engine.
 Pushing up diabetes levels.
 Food industry misleads the public by saying that an item is
high in fibre without also saying that it is also high in fat
and sugar.
 Industry turns our health advice on its head and has a
vested interest in suppressing the harmful effects of some
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of its products.

Food Industry Is Huge.
The messages put out by the 17 billion a year food
industry go unopposed because the budget for health
promotion is so small, but what kind of health system can
compete with constant food advertising on prime-time
T.V.
 In America the food industry must by law list the amount
of trans fats and cholesterol in their products.
 Supermarkets argue that they offer a choice to the
consumer, it is up to the consumer to decide.

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Problem
People look for absolution for their lifestyles rather than
changing what they do. They would rather take a product
that lowers cholesterol than take exercise.
 The concept of diet is not being understood because of the
concept of “probability neglect” used by scientists to
explain why people worry about low probability
catastrophes.
 We know that a bad diet can kill us, but we believe that it
won’t happen tomorrow or it won’t happen to me.

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Mischievous Food Labelling.
“Irish Smoked Salmon” versus “Smoked Irish Salmon” so
which product is made in Ireland.
 Irish Chicken Kiev” could be made with chicken from
Thailand.
 Eighty per cent fat free – this means that the product
contains twenty per cent fat, way above the three per cent
“low fat” claim.
 Many nutrition labels list the sodium content rather than
telling us how much salt the food contains. Multiply the
sodium content by 2.5 to get the salt content.

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Labels
 “Lo
Salt” – is this product low in salt or does it
contain less salt than the high amounts in the
previous version of the product.
 “King-size” or “Duo” Snack bar manufacturers
voluntarily offered to get rid of their king-size
products in an effort to reduce portion sizes. Many
replaced the king size bar with a “duo” product
containing two smaller bars in the same size
packet.
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Food:what lurks within.
Salt is added to a product to increase its shelf life, enhance
its taste and to make it easier to manufacture.
 Salt is linked to increased blood pressure, heart disease
and stroke.
 The Food Safety Authority wants our intake of salt to be
reduced from 10 grams per day to four grams per day by
the year 2010.
 The problem is that 75% of our salt intake is involuntary
and we must have the co-operation of the food industry to
do this. The E.U. would interpret any compulsion as a
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barrier
to trade.

Fat
Consumption of saturated fat and trans fat raises
cholesterol levels that increase the risk of heart disease.
Trans fats are man made hydrogenated vegetable oils and
are 10 times more dangerous to the heart than saturated
fats.
 Unsaturated fats do not raise cholesterol.
 In the U.S. food manufacturers are required by law to state
how much trans fat, saturated fat and cholesterol is in the
food. No such requirement in Ireland.

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Acrylamides
This is a chemical created as a by-product of roasting or
cooking at high temperatures, for example in the
manufacture of crisps or chips and is known to be
carcinogenic. Nutritionists believe that these products can
be removed from the food.
 In recent years, Ferries have increased the width of their
seats.
 Ambulance companies have installed in their vehicles a
winch to handle patients weighing up to half a ton.

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A Widening Global Problem.
Human bodies are designed to convert food into fat and
store that fat. (Useful to our ancestors).
 In the 21st century fat is stored for a famine that never
comes.
 In Asia roads once filled with cyclists and pedestrians are
now congested with cars heading for new drive through
fast food restaurants.
 In South America the amount of processed food has
increased by 40% since 1980.
 In America 400,000 lives are lost due to obesity and 100
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billion dollars pumped into the problem each year.

80% who buy imported food believe it
is made here
 77%
of Irish people believe that Lyons tea is made
in Ireland, it is packaged by unilever a Dutch firm
in the U.K.
 71% of Irish consumers believe that H.B. ice
cream to be an Irish brand, it too is packed by
unilever in the U.K.
 80% believe that Siucra is Irish made, it is grown
overseas and shipped here by a German firm
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Nordzucker
If you want to buy Irish
 Buy
Barry’s tea instead of Lyons.
 Buy Avonmore soups instead of Cully and Sully
ones.
 Buy Batchelors beans instead of Heinz beans.
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