So what's your crap food secret? Here's ours... What's Ireland Eating

Last night on RTE television, journalist (and my other half) Philip Boucher-Hayes presented the second "What's Ireland Eating?" documentary which we developed from the book we wrote together in 2009 - Basketcase; what's happening to Irish food?.

Like the first "What's Ireland Eating" programme which grabbed Irish audiences by the throat last year, it was a powerful investigation on what's going on in the Irish diet. Plenty of shocking footage of visceral fat choking a patient's insides as he lay on the operating table of a Dublin hospital. Plenty of new research denoting that high calorie, high fat, high salt food is not just loosely "addictive" but actually addictive. Norah Volkow, a scientist in addiction from the US explained how even the idea of consuming a food you crave creates a dopamine response, which is often not matched by eating the food itself. So you consume more, to get the same hit. Looking at signage of fast food brands can cause this response in people, with some reaching the point where they can no longer regulate their brain's response or demand for certain foods, let alone deal with what happens once they are in their body.

Let's be clear here. We all eat bad food from time to time. My particular "crap food" favorites are peanut butter, crisps and prawn crackers. In a sequence that was cut from the final edit for time constraints, Philip recorded a food diary, accurate down to the last Skittle and glass of whiskey. Fortunately his main meal that day was a ratatouille that I had made for supper, which is low in calories and thankfully full of pretty good nutrients. The photo on the right shows him receiving his nutritional breakdown which was conducted by Teagasc. Not a very happy face is it? But that's real life, we're not all as healthy as we may think we are.

But is a high calorie snack food bad for you if you only consume it now and again? One of the central questions we wanted to ask in the documentary was - is curing Ireland's obesity problem as simple as saying "everything in moderation". Professor Mike Gibney from UCD shook his head "That's not working is it?" which is pretty much the case. We know more about food values and calorie content in Ireland than perhaps we ever did. Yet our obesity figures are still on the rise. So why are so many of us out of control in our eating habits and does the food industry have a role to play in curbing this pattern?

Should there be a reformulation of ingredients in manufactured foods? Would a sugar tax bring about behaviour change? Should healthier options be subsided by taxing sugary drinks? Is more education the answer? There are many options in the war on obesity that have been employed by other countries - Denmark (fat tax) and some states in the US (banning sodas over 16 ounces in volume, punitive taxes on soda drinks in others) but obestiy is a complex issue that needs a complex set of solutions. As the weight watchers group in Athlone who featured in the documentary admitted "we eat when we're miserable, we eat to celebrate.. that's why we're here". They said that a lot of their excess weight was down to their individual responsibility. On twitter yesterday in Ireland #whatsirelandeating was the topic trending for the entire day with multiple tweets per second as the programme aired "what can we do about obesity... tax the junk food companies.... I never knew a bag of prawn crackers had 600 calories!". What was most important was that Irish people were engaged by the issue and engagement itself has to be part of the solution.

We didn't provide answers in the documentary but asked the questions. If you want to have a look it's on the RTE player at the link below.

http://www.rte.ie/tv/programmes/whats_ireland_eating.html

Fat tax adds 6% to price of cream; supermarket charges 17% more, just for the hell of it. The Denmark fat tax experience

Yes sometimes I moan about supermarkets, but I never thought they could have an active role in mucking up public health policy.

I recently did a report on RTE radio about Denmark's Fat Tax. Instead of the expected trend in consumers purchasing high calorie foods, what I found was that retailers there are using the tax to fatten their bottom line. A price survey of eight supermarkets carried out by weekly Danish newspaper Søndagsavisen with co-operation from the Tax Ministry, revealed that prices on many fatty foods were significantly higher than warranted by the tax’s introduction.

For example, while Skat – the Danish Tax and Customs Administration had calculated that the price of sour cream would increase by 6.6 percent due to the fat tax, the spot check revealed that at supermarket Aldi the price of sour cream was raised by a whopping 17.3 percent.
Aldi was the worst offender in the study, with the supermarket raising prices on 9 of the 10 inspected products by more than what could be accounted for by the new tax. Lidl was also an offender - they had increased the price of sour cream by 15.1 percent more than warranted by the tax. Both of these firms operate in Ireland and in fact are growing their share of the grocery market here.

The Danish Consumer Council’s reaction was “Supermarkets can determine their own prices, so it is not prohibited, but it doesn’t look good.” Yes, it sure doesn't look good. Politicians there have now said that there needs to be a debate on “whether there are ways to protect the consumer.”

In all my analysis of fat taxes and obesity measures around the world I was probably naive to overlook the huge issue of how these taxes are delivered - via the supermarkets. As there is yet no regulation on supermarkets in Ireland, going down a sugar tax or fat tax route could put us in exactly the same postition as the Danes - being fleeced. There are also supermarkets in Denmark who are not charging the new tax and trying to gain competitive advantage. So basically, the public health measures expected from the tax are at the whim of the companies who deliver them.

Later this winter we should have legislation here on a proposed new supermarket ombudsman and the possibility of at last protecting both consumers and food producers. After giving a witness statement at an Oireachtas Committee on this back in 2009 it's getting critical that something finally be done. Successive governments here have shirked their responsibilities on the issue. The Danish example just goes to prove that if you have no legal framework to work with the supermarkets on pricing then you may as well be throwing public health measures down the pan.

If you want to hear my discussion with Pat Kenny on the Danish fat tax dilemma it's on the following link; scroll down to November 1st and you'll see my name and the Fat Tax item.

http://www.rte.ie/radio1/podcast/podcast_patkenny.xml

Denmark's Fat Tax - one month old and already gone badly wrong

After a fabulous Friday spent at Savour Kilkenny I'm firmly back in the real world after discovering a food news shocker today. I should have known that after a lovely interlude of chatting with author Colman Andrews about locavores, eating Goatsbridge trout and Knockdrinna cheese with fantastic wine pairings in Mount Juliet, things would come down to earth with a bump via my old nemesis - the supermarkets.

Tomorrow morning I'm reporting on the Kenny Show on Fat Tax and how Denmark is reacting to its first month under the new expensive food regime. Aside from the expected consumer complaints about more expensive processed food, dairy and meat products, the real shocker is that the supermarkets there have taken complete advantage of the new law and are charging as much as 15% more on products such as butter and cream, on top of the 6% or so mark up from the fat tax itself.

This is profiteering on an outrageous scale and again there's no measures or legislation to stop them. Not only are the Danish chains involved in this desception but also Aldi and Lidl which operate here in Ireland. Sometimes I think I'm far too cynical about supermarkets but this new piece of skullduggery in action blew me away. And what would happen here if a fat tax was introduced? Exactly the same thing, particularly as we've no supermarket ombudsman or protection from this sort of practice.

What's the point of having any kind of public health policy if supermarkets use it as a tool to rip off consumers? I'll be going through it in detail after 10am on RTE radio one tomorrow and will put an audio link up here on the blog later.

Fat tax: outrageous infringement of our right to eat, or a tool to tackle an obesity crisis

Ah the fat tax. We're all doomed. My weekend packet of McDonnell's crisps could be 20 cent more. My couple-of-times-a-year fish and chips might set me back an extra two euro. But more importantly, what about the massive amount of cheese and whole milk I consume? The pizzas I make myself, the bakewell tarts with local eggs and apples. The chocolate, em, lots of it.

This is the problem; a fat tax doesn't just tax junk food, it potentially taxes all foods that contain saturated fats. In my own humble opinion I think my diet is pretty wholesome and fairly healthy. But is that healthy diet going to yet another part of my life that seems to cost more money daily? Or is a fat tax worth levelling at all of us, and at many types of food in order to tackle what is a clearly out of control obesity problem.

Earlier this month Denmark was the first of our neighbouring states to introduce a fat tax - making goods like butter, pizza, crisps, oil and processed foods more expensive for the consumer. Anything with more than 2.3% of saturated fat gets taxed. The idea is that if something is more expensive, we eat less of it. To be fair, this has worked in the past; alongside huge negative health messages about cigarettes, making them very expensive has not just been a huge cash earner for the Government but a deterrent to their use. Look at it this way, if a packet of fags costed two euro many people would smoke a hell of a lot more than if (as now) they cost close to a tenner.

Some onlookers say the Danish tax won't work; making foods more expensive won't change behaviour as sweet foods, chocolate or the odd MacDonald's is a treat and people will still consume them whatever the small price rise. The real sufferers of obesity in Ireland tend to lie in lower income groups, so is penalising them fair, or will it force them to change their food habits?

All we can do is watch and see how the Danish fat tax works on people's eating behaviour. It seems that the obesity task force in Ireland is looking firstly at taxing sugary drinks - a fat tax is not yet on the table. Below is a piece I wrote this week for the Irish Times outlining the Dane's plans. Read and weep, rejoice or whatever you feel, I'd love to hear your comments x

The Irish Times Tuesday, October 18th

Suzanne Campbell

THE FAT TAX: HOW IT WORKS IN DENMARK
Methods of taxing the rising tide of obesity are being debated around Europe following the initiative of Hungary who began penalising high calorie food and drinks on September 1st, with Denmark introducing a “fat tax” earlier this month.
The Danish tax operates as a surcharge on foods such as butter, oil and pizza which contain more than 2.3 per cent saturated fat. For consumers, these foods now carry a levy, calculated at €2.15 per kilogram of saturated fat, meaning that the cost of a pound of butter has increased by about 20 cent.
With an obesity rate of 9 per cent, Denmark is far below the European average of 15 per cent, while 23 per cent of Irish people are considered to be obese. Denmark and Finland have already levied taxes on sugary drinks, while Hungary brought in a wide ranging “fat tax” on foods, soft drinks and alcohol in a bid to tackle its 18.8 per cent obesity rate.
British prime minister David Cameron suggested earlier this month that the UK could follow Denmark’s lead, and from January 1st France is to introduce a tax on sugary drinks which will add 2 cent to every 33cl can.

While taxing sugar-sweetened drinks is being discussed by the Special Action Group on Obesity in this country, Minister for Health James Reilly says there are no plans for a “fat tax” on high fat, salt and sugary foods “at this juncture”. But, in response to a recent parliamentary question, Reilly said that he plans to ask the country’s fast-food operators to include calorie details on their menus.

For many Irish food manufacturers, a “fat tax” is an unwelcome vista. “Under the Danish measures, Irish cheese and milk would be taxed as they contain more than 2.3 per cent saturated fats,” says Catherine Logan, nutrition manager at the National Dairy Council.
“But we have to remember that people eat whole foods rather than just single nutrients.”
Could there be a workable solution that doesn’t penalise nutritionally valuable foods such as dairy produce? “There are alternative ways of taxing and with something like cheese you could come to an agreement where it is defined differently,” says Dr Martin Carraher, professor of food and health policy at City University, London.

His suggested measure for Ireland is to tax “processing” and, in doing so, favour foods that are produced locally. “You can do this as long as you don’t provide a barrier to trade.”
His suggestions would be welcomed by many Irish food producers, but without a change of direction from the Minister for Health, the prospect of an Irish “fat tax” in the near future is still an unlikely one.