RESEARCH RECENTLY CONDUCTED by Webloyalty indicates that Irish families are set to spend almost €550million on food this Christmas — an increase of over €34million from last year.
This culture of excess is part of a worrying trend in the country’s eating habits, with a World Health Organisation (WHO) survey last May indicating that Ireland is in line to become Europe’s most obese nation by 2030.
One person who knows more than most about nutrition and physical fitness is David Gillick. The retired Irish track and field athlete naturally needed to think obsessively about nutrition over the course of his career, and has maintained a big interest in it since stepping away from the sport.
Earlier this year, he released a cookbook entitled ‘David Gillick’s Kitchen,’ in which he shares the recipes that have helped maximise his athletics performances.
Gillick also spends time promoting the importance of health and wellbeing, speaking at schools to share his expertise in the subject.
The 2005 and 2007 European Indoor Championships gold medalist is concerned by the recent damning statistics in relation to Irish people’s fitness, pointing out that children in particular are prone to obesity.
“I don’t think naturally we are an obese nation. I think it comes down to the lifestyle choices that people are making nowadays, and in particular, we’ve seen obesity grow remarkably with kids.
What is quite startling on ground level is I am seeing a lot more overweight kids in classrooms. That is the next generation, so there is evidence supporting what is out there about Ireland becoming Europe’s most obese nation.
“I think there are a number of things we’re doing wrong. It comes down to activity levels of our kids. You’re obviously competing a lot with computer games and TV. We’re sitting down a lot more and are not as active as we once were. Through the schools initiative I’m doing, we visited a school up north in Derry. It was an all-girls schools — what we really took home is that some of girls up there were on a par with some of the boys of the same age down south.
I think it does come down to the activity levels. If you compare here to the UK system, they’re doing PE as part of the curriculum. Down here, our kids might only get exercise once a week in school.
“There’s also the food and the influence of sugar in the diet as well. You’re looking at all the fizzy drinks that kids are consuming. Even in relation to smoothies and things like this, we have to be aware of what we’re feeding ourselves. Yes, food and veg are important, but there’s been a massive increase in the amount of smoothies. In some cases, there’s more sugar in a smoothie than a bottle of coke. So it comes down to what we’re eating and snacking on, and our activity levels.”
There has also been much debate over whether food manufacturers should be held accountable for this growing issue, or whether individuals need to accept more responsibility for their problems.
It’s two-fold,” Gillick says. “As individuals we can do a lot ourselves on a really practical level. It’s not only schools, I’ve been in corporates as well and it’s actually quite interesting to see the vending machine is still there stocked up on sugary snacks and sugary drinks.
“We can do a lot as individuals and as parents. Personally, I’m soon to be a parent, I’m in that area now where I have to look after kids. What influence do I want to give them in relation to their diet? Am I going to be using sugar as a reward system? They’ll soon cop on that if they kick and scream, they might just get a treat. As adults, we control those influences.”
The possibility of government intervention has also been suggested as a means of potentially curbing the problem, with proposals such as a sugar tax being put forward. Does Gillick support this idea?
Things like a sugar tax — do I think they’re a good idea? Yes, but they’re going to be very hard to implement. There are big companies out there and it’s going to be very hard to put a tax on them. I just don’t know whether it’s that feasible. Whereas I think there’s a lot we can do as individuals, particularly in and around our work place and our schools. And also with education, I think there’s a lot of fads out there when it comes to diets — one week you’re told to eat one thing, next week it’s something else. And it gets very confusing for people.
“Even the way food is marketed — there’s a lot to be said about what is put on packaging. There’s a lot of packaging out there that suggests certain foods are healthier than others, when in actual fact, they’re not at all. It comes down to educating people on an ingredients list, the nutritional info on the back of the packet — that’s the starting point. If we’re going to the shops, it’s what we put in our bags, what we take home and at the end of the day, what we eat.”
And while forming a better understanding of the benefits of eating healthily is undoubtedly vital, something as simple as regular exercise can often be overlooked. The 32-year-old one-time Celebrity Masterchef winner also feels the nature of modern society is contributing to Irish people’s health problems.
The way we live now is that everything is instant. We want a quick fix, one thing that’s going to change our lifestyle whether it’s one pill that’s going to make us really skinny and lose weight, or one pill that’s going to make us really healthy. It’s not there and we have to look at the holistic approach.
“Exercise is vital in our overall health and wellbeing and the way that we live today is very busy, very rushed. People are sitting at desks for eight or nine hours a day, potentially going home to sit in front of the TV for another couple of hours. So you’re sitting down for large parts of the day while probably still trying to fuel yourself on high sugar foods. We have to look at our lifestyle, we have to include an element of exercise and mobility into our daily lifestyle. That’s going to help an awful lot when it comes to your overall health and wellbeing.”
Although the current outlook is far from positive, measures are being put in place in an attempt to address the problem. For instance, it was announced last August that the subject of ‘wellbeing’ would be part of the reformed Junior Cert curriculum from 2017 onwards.
It’s coming into the curriculum and when you start educating the next generation about general health and wellbeing, it’s a life skill and from my own experience of going into schools and promoting activity, it’s amazing how many schools aren’t aware of it and don’t link up nutrition and exercise, and what it does physically and mentally.
“I know certain schools are trying to get more people to come in and talk about these topics, and it’s great to see that mindfulness and wellness is coming in, because that’s where it starts. If you talk to the next generation about the benefits of it, then we might not have this problem 10 or 15 years down the line.”
Remembering his own childhood experiences, Gillick describes how he was part of a sports-mad family, though admits his knowledge of the importance of nutrition was limited initially.
I enjoyed sport and I was competitive and all those things, but I didn’t link nutrition to it. It was only when I honed in on my sport when I kind of went professional with athletics and moved over to England. I thought: ‘Actually, hang on, I can use nutrition as a weapon if I’m eating correctly.’ I used to think a big white roll and some Deli ham and salad was really healthy.
“I was never educated in school about the benefits of eating well and the importance of it for later on in life. Nowadays, we’re slowly getting our heads around it, but the pace of life has changed. There wasn’t so much emphasis on computer games and fitting in. We were always out and about — and I don’t want to sound like a ‘back in my day’ old fella, but I do think that that has changed a lot. You don’t see as many kids out on the street kicking a football. Parents are a little bit more wary about where their kids are for various reasons.
“I think society has changed a little bit — we tend to snack on foods as opposed to having a regular meal. That’s what has changed, but a lot more people are aware of it. Now, we really need to put a structure together particularly for the next generation to make sure we don’t have these big problems that are estimated in a couple of years.”
‘David Gillick’s Kitchen’ is published by Mercier Press. More info here.
David Gillick is part of the NewBreed schools initiative supported by New Balance and Athletics Ireland. It aims to showcase the benefits of athletics for all sports — speed, agility, strength and power makes you a better player overall, while promoting exercise in the class room with three simple tests: 20 metre sprint; vertical jump; horizontal jump.
