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

Eating - it's all emotional. No Seriously...

Feeling low.... fumble for the chocolate at the back of the cupboard? Missed your train, give yourself a boost with a milky latte? We all have certain foods we reach for when our plans, or our emotions hit the floor. Up to recently this was viewed as something that was our own fault - a behaviour rather then a pattern we couldn't account for.

But new research suggests that the Gut-Brain Axis - the relationship between our brains and what we eat is much more complex than this. For example 50% of Irish people who suffer Irritable Bowel Syndrome also have depression. Did their feelings of "lowness" bring on problems in their gut or vice versa?

The link between mood, depression and diabetes is also becoming clearer with a huge rate of those diagnosed with both type 1 and type 2 depression in Ireland also taking medication for depression.

We also now know that a nerve called the GABA nerve is very active is in how our neurotrainsmitters work and what feelings and emotions the brain produces. It's also heavily influenced by certain foods, and the messages these foods upload in terms of our emotional state.

One sure thing most of us reach for when feeling low is sugary snacks or refined carbohydrates - that tub of Ben and Jerry's or the white baguette sandwich smeared with mayonnaise. Eating refined carbohydrates boosts insulin and provides a clearer path for tryptophan - the amino acid linked to serotonin production, to act in the brain. No surprise then that sugar gives us an instant "high"- but we now know that this spike of wellbeing is physiological rather than emotional. It's just a pity that half an hour later you crash back down to earth.

I wrote about this cycle today in The Irish Times, and talked about some foods to throw in your trolley to break the flip-flop cycle of eating for your mood. It's a fascinating area as most of us forget that our brain needs fuel and fail to see there are simple foods we are neglecting and thus prolonging our pattern of sugar high and sugar crash eating. Check it out at the link below, and my personal tip - unsalted peanuts... great brain fuel and they taste pretty good.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/health/2012/0403/1224314289134.html