Parents should buy only one Easter egg per child, warns medic

'People don't understand how hardwired the brain is to be unable to resist the combination of high fat, high salt and sugar'.

Parents have been urged to buy only one Easter egg for each child this year.

HSE clinical lead on obesity Professor Donal O’Shea warned it was “a flawed narrative” if parents think it is okay to indulge for one day.

Prof O'Shea said such an attitude was flawed because the food and drinks industry wanted to increase the daily consumption of products like Easter eggs and used occasions such as Halloween, Christmas and Easter to promote them.

People don't understand how hardwired the brain is to be unable to resist the combination of high fat, high salt and sugar. It is. You cannot stop.

The food and drinks industry had opposed the sugar tax “violently and very effectively” for a decade, he said. 

But when it finally came in, the total sugar content people were ingesting had been reduced.

“We're beginning to see a levelling in our obesity rates and trends, which is positive. And it's the first time we're kind of able to express that,” Prof O'Shea told RTÉ Radio 1.  

Obesity rates in Ireland were now “edging down” to 20% from 23% in adults, which was a very encouraging trend.

It was also encouraging  Ireland was not seeing a spike in weight in school-going children as had happened in the UK during covid.

“That's positive. So in the wide, I think parents are doing a fantastic job, because one in four of our children are overweight or have obesity, but four in five don't. And that's pretty good in the toxic environment that we have.

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“But parents need to realise that at every turn, the food and drinks industry is trying to push them towards ultra-processed [food]. 

And if you're high on ultra-processed food as a child, your palate will reject broccoli, your palate will reject the whole foods that contain the vitamins and minerals that you need to grow healthily.

Prof O’Shea said new drugs like Ozempic that are available to treat obesity would be “a game-changer”.

“They work very well for about a third of people. They're kind of okay, not great for a third, and they don't work for the other third. So it's not this silver bullet that people think, 'Oh, if I could just get on Ozempic,' not so. 

"And there are side-effects. But what we have now for the first time is safe treatments for the disease of obesity other than surgery, which is a very good treatment.” 

However, such drugs are not available for children in Ireland at present.