DR EVA ORSMOND thought she’d seen it all when it came to food and health – and she held very strong opinions about personal responsibility.
But while recording her new one-off documentary, Ireland’s Health Divide (broadcast on RTÉ One at 9.35pm this evening), she found herself challenged and humbled by what she discovered, she told TheJournal.ie.
In the programme, Orsmond visits people at both sides of the health divide, travelling to Moyross in Limerick – one of the country’s most deprived areas – and Glasthule in Dublin, which is a more privileged area.
Orsmond found that some of her own thinking around lifestyle changes was challenged when she witnessed the many socioeconomic barriers that can prevent people from accessing healthy food.
“We all, not just myself, tend to judge and make conclusions based off our background,” she admitted.
She pointed out that she was born and raised in Finland, which has a very good education system and social security system, but added: “I don’t want to give an impression I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth, my mother was a single parent, my parents divorced when I was four and we weren’t very wealthy at all in the beginning.”
However, Orsmond said that because there is a lot of opportunity in Finland, she had been judging people because of her background.
“Where now I meet people who don’t really have those opportunities – people are struggling with substandard housing, they have financial struggles… you’re talking about safety, there could be domestic violence,” she says.
In the show, she looks at the fact that children born in poverty in Ireland will die on average six years earlier than children born into affluence.
“I always thought people had the ability to take personal responsibility for their own health, but after filming this documentary I’ve really changed my views,” she said.
I didn’t think I was easily shocked but some of what I’ve seen in Ireland’s most disadvantaged communities has truly shocked me, I saw poverty that I didn’t think existed in this country.
Orsmond said she hopes that the show will encourage Ireland’s TDs to address the issues.
“You would hope that our legislators and our politicians will look at how we can improve – that something will come out of these programmes,” said Orsmond.
Ireland’s Health Divide is on RTÉ One tonight at 9.35pm
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