ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT MCALEESE AT THE SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCE OF THE EUROPEAN CHILDHOOD OBESITY GROUP
ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT MCALEESE AT THE 19TH ANNUAL SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCE OF THE EUROPEAN CHILDHOOD OBESITY GROUP
Dia dhíbh a chairde. Tá an-áthas orm bheith i bhur measc anseo ar an ócáid speisialta seo. Míle bhuíochas díbh as an gcuireadh agus an fáilte a thug sibh dom. I am delighted to extend a céad míle fáilte, a hundred thousand welcomes to you all for the 19th Annual Meeting and Workshop of the European Childhood Obesity Group. I would especially like to welcome those of you who have travelled from overseas to be here. This is the first time an ECOG workshop is being hosted in Ireland and I am sure that as delegates you can look forward to some of our legendary Irish hospitality during your stay here. I would particularly like to thank Professor Hilary Hoey for her kind invitation to join you this morning. I know that you have a very exciting scientific programme ahead of you and I am delighted that Dublin is playing host to such an array of experts in this field of childhood obesity which has taken on an increasing importance and urgency in recent years.
The importance of what happens in childhood on later growth and future health is beyond doubt. Establishing healthy lifestyles is an essential part of the investment we make in our children from the outset for it is true that what is learnt in childhood is engraved on stone and we who are the adult engravers have such a short window and such a huge responsibility to get things right. Our children depend upon us and bad engraving leaves a mark that can last a lifetime, embedding patterns of behaviour which can cast long shadows over that life.
In the developed world, great strides have been made in maintaining good health and better quality of life into old age. Life expectancy has increased significantly in recent decades thanks to better nutrition, housing, education and lifestyles. But there are worrying clouds gathering and they warn us of the rising prevalence of the lifestyle diseases, including obesity.
Childhood obesity is rising rapidly in Ireland, reflecting what is happening across the wider population and in other countries. Indeed the rise in obesity has been described by the World Health Organisation as a ‘global epidemic’ – a word that is currently all over the news in relation to swine flu but for some reason the ticking timebomb that is the obesity epidemic does not raise the same level of alarm. The rising number of children affected by obesity is of particular concern as childhood obesity leads to a broad range of serious health and social problems. A concern often voiced is “Will this generation of obese children die before their parents?” The devastating medical consequences for obese children are well documented and are the subject of rigorous research by you and others – an increased risk of serious health problems like type two diabetes, high blood pressure or heart disease that previously were considered “adult” diseases. The social and family consequences are more difficult to measure but are no less real – obese children’s scope for the fullest enjoyment of life is clearly reduced in many ways from low self-esteem, vulnerability to bullying and exclusion from the full range of everyday childhood experiences, especially sport and adventure play. Your work here in Dublin is vital in helping us to address and halt these worrying trends which are shutting down young lives unnecessarily and causing real suffering.
We each have a personal responsibility for our own health and the health of our children and we carry a responsibility to ensure that the increase in longevity witnessed in the last few decades is matched with an improvement in overall health. That means being prepared to conscientiously address the lifestyle factors which contribute to obesity and other chronic conditions. We share that responsibility as individuals with the health sector, the education sector, the food and drink industry, the world of advertising, of the media, politics and broader civic society. The problem calls for everyone to play their part for such a complex issue cannot be tackled by health professionals alone. The Government recently established an Inter-sectoral Group on Obesity comprising all key stakeholders, chaired by the Minister for Health Promotion, Áine Brady TD, who is here with us this morning and already its initiatives such as the “Little Steps” programme are showing some positive indications that we are open to change, open to unlearning bad practices and learning best practice.
Worryingly, poverty and childhood obesity often go hand in hand and that reality challenges us to overcome the socio-economic barriers that prevent children’s access to a balanced diet and to physical and leisure activities. Your work in identifying, exploring and addressing these socio-economic factors is of crucial importance in reducing the risk of obesity in children who are marginalised within society. The role of families is crucial too, for as James Baldwin once said “children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them”.
One of the central recommendations for preventing and treating childhood obesity is the emphasis on eating together as a family. This is not new advice – back in the seventeenth century, English essayist Joseph Addison recommended that “all well-regulated families set apart an hour every morning for tea and bread and butter”!. While the ingredients for a healthy breakfast may be more varied nowadays and you will no doubt be horrified at the lack of fruit or vegetables in that menu, there is merit as many of you have pointed out in reflecting on the central and crucial importance of something as simple and doable as regular shared family mealtime. It is not a complete answer but it is part of the answer and neither is it rocket science. It is however an indispensable part of the jigsaw puzzle of effort we all need to put together in order to safeguard the health of our children. Modern lifestyles may have let shared family meals slip down our list of priorities but now we can see the price being paid by some of our children. It is time to rethink and reorganise our family lives around a much greater focus on healthy living and healthy eating.
We’ve all heard the expression that our health is our wealth and it is a very neat summary of a great truth. A healthy population is a pre-requisite for economic and social development. Investment in health and investment in addressing the so-called “determinants of health” will have positive economic and social consequences for the country through the obvious benefits it brings to each individual who grows up healthy and with good lifestyle habits.
Your work is a vital part of the life journey of each individual that leads to the blossoming of their fullest potential and the wider journey of all of us as a society to economic recovery. Without your work we might well remain blind to the problems you help us to face and the suffering of children would simply increase. Thanks to you the problem has been identified, quantified, analysed in a sober and scholarly way and you have confronted us with certain truths we need now to tackle and redeem. Importantly you have helped us to understand how we can overcome the underlying problems and to chart a credible pathway to actually overcoming childhood obesity.
Thank you for the dedication, skills, ingenuity, experience and passion that you bring to such a critical issue – for helping us to understand that childhood obesity can be and must be tackled. Yours is a message of urgency and also of hope. This is a problem that between us we can address if we listen, learn and act. I wish you well with your crucial work. May you enjoy each other’s company and, of course, the delights of Dublin.