Dr Ciara: reasons for obesity ‘complex'

Dr Ciara Kelly has taken Dr Eva Orsmond’s role as nutrition expert on Operation Transformation. She is not new to TV.

“I am a partner in Carrig Clinic GP surgery in Greystones, and I am also a GP trainer, so work with young GPs and am involved with teaching,” she says. “I have worked extensively in the media — having worked on TV3 for two years as their resident GP on the Morning Show, I am one of the presenters of Doctors on Call on RTÉ, and I work for various other shows and publications.”

Many people in Ireland do not know how to eat healthily. “We have a growing problem and I’d go so far as to say that we have an obesity epidemic,” she says. “I think the reasons are complex — from changing social patterns to families with both parents working to time restraints and convenience foods. But there are also groups within society that lack education and information about what is healthy and nutritious.

“We still have large sections of the population who never eat fruit or vegetables — whose eating habits are grossly unhealthy, but don’t know how to change them. I’m passionate about getting the message out there — particularly to children and their parents.”

The Wicklow-based GP says many people eat when they are not hungry, to soothe emotions. “Some of us have a healthy relationship with food, but many of us don’t,” she says. “Affluence, convenience foods, and the rise of comfort eating are undermining that relationship, so many of us eat for reasons other than hunger, and associate overeating with having a good time, in the same way we often associate alcohol with the same thing. But overeating only makes you feel bad, so it’s not a good thing.”

“Self-belief, or the lack of it, isour biggest challenge when it comes to reaching and maintaining a healthy weight. People lean on food in the same way as they lean on alcohol, gambling or shopping. It’s used as a crutch to self-soothe, but it really is a self-destructive coping mechanism and when the dopamine rush from overeating passes, all that is left is feeling guilty, worthless and ashamed.”

Dr Kelly says we need to have faith in our own ability to lose weight. “Many people sabotage their own success and, in fact, hide behind their weight,” she says. “You need to believe you can reach your target and stay there — you must really want it, because it is hard work and ongoing. It’s a way of life. I would say the single most important change we could make towards a healthier lifestyle is to weigh ourselves regularly, so the pounds can’t sneak on. That, and having a healthy diet which you like, so we all need to find healthy foods we enjoy. The other thing is to build activity into the day — walk wherever you can, take the stairs and see them as an opportunity rather than a challenge.”

* Operation Transformation is on RTÉ One on Tuesdays at 8:30pm.