‘Significant’ drop in number of inactive people

More people are more active more often, according to the Irish Sports Council.

John Treacy, the council’s chief executive, said the latest research showed a “significant” decrease in the number of inactive people.

The proportion of the population described as sedentary dropped from 18% in 2003 to 15% in 2009.

“The council will bring out further research later this year that will again show sedentarism is down significantly,” Mr Treacy said yesterday.

And, he said, latest figures also indicated that there might be an acceleration in the upward trend in sport participation.

In 2003, 29.8% of the population participated weekly in sport, compared to 33.5% in 2009.

“Provisional 2011 figures suggest that the earlier upward trends are continuing and might, if anything, be accelerating,” he told a meeting of the Joint Committee on Health and Children.

Research also shows more women are playing sport now than was the case in 2003.

Mr Treacy pointed out 70% more men than women participated in sport in 2003 — the figure was 53% in 2009 and (provisionally) 29% in 2011.

He also revealed the gap between employed and unemployed people regarding sports participation had closed.

“In 2003, employed people were 50% more likely to participate than those unemployed; by 2009 the gap was down to 15% while in 2011 there is no gap in the provisional figures,” he said.

There were also early indicators that the gap in relation to education attainment might be closing, said Mr Treacy, who won a silver medal in the marathon at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

According to research in 2009, those with third-level education were 3.2 times more likely to participate in sport than those with primary education.

Meanwhile, Fine Gael Senator and former athlete Eamon Coghlan said he hoped his Points for Life initiative would be introduced in 12 primary schools on a pilot basis in September.

Mr Coghlan said there were five simple physical fitness exercise exercises in the programme to measure the fitness of young people.

He said the results of Points for Life programme would convince the Government to roll it out in all schools.

Beetroot burgers

Scientists are on the lookout for men to eat burgers — so they can test the health benefits of beetroot.

Researchers at the University of Aberdeen think adding the root vegetable to the meaty treat could stop the body from absorbing the “bad fat” found in processed food.

Eating fatty foods triggers a process called oxidation in the stomach, whereby fats are transformed into potentially toxic compounds and absorbed into the body.

These compounds have been linked to cancer and heart disease.

The researchers have come up with a recipe for their own turkey and beetroot burger, and are looking for healthy men to try it out.

The study is part of a wider Scottish Government-funded project to investigate the potential health benefits of Scottish produce.

Volunteers will be asked to eat turkey burgers with and without beetroot, and will be monitored to see which compounds their bodies absorb when they eat the different burgers.

Research leader Professor Garry Duthie, of the university’s Rowett Research Institute of Nutrition and Health, said: “We are looking to identify if adding a vegetable extract to processed food can actually protect the body from absorbing the ‘bad’ fats which exist in these types of products.

“We believe that adding a vegetable extract such as beetroot, which contains antioxidant compounds, will stop this oxidation of fat in the gut, and prohibit the body from absorbing the bad fat.

“Beetroot may also have the added health benefit of lowering blood pressure.”

The scientists are looking for men between the ages of 21 and 60 for the four-day study at the Rowett Institute in Bucksburn, Aberdeenshire.