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20th December 2016
12:10am GMT
Who says the civil service doesn't have a sense of humour?
The Department of Health threw a press event this morning for the new Healthy Ireland survey, at which it announced some grisly statistics about the country's startling obesity rates – as well as issues such as smoking, activity levels and other factors affecting our national health.
But according to Newstalk.com's Richard Chambers, the culinary options on offer weren't exactly in the spirit of the launch – which was carried out by Health Minister Leo Varadkar.
The spread at Healthy Ireland launch (which says 60% are overweight or obese) is ehh... not entirely healthy. pic.twitter.com/k41EutgQpk
— Richard Chambers (@newschambers) October 7, 2015
Right so.
It seemed a strange move for the launch of a report where snack foods were singled out as a problem, as a majority of the population consume them on a daily basis.
But aside from that, the results weren't all doom and gloom.
While 60% of adults are overweight or obese – down from 61% in 2007 – some 48% of those are trying to lose weight, while smoking is at an all-time low of 19%.
#HISurvey interviewed over 7500 people. Themes included general #health #smoking #food #alcohol #physical #activity pic.twitter.com/qRJvyKqY9h
— HealthyIreland (@HealthyIreland) October 7, 2015
Our drinking remains a problem, as do our activity levels. But, much like obesity and smoking, there are signs that the population is at least conscious of these issues – 38% said they wished to become more active.
