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THE DEPARTMENT OF Health has announced new healthy eating guidelines and a new food pyramid, which stresses eating fruit and vegetables over carbohydrates like bread.
The guidelines are aimed at providing advice on a balanced diet to the general public, and advise limiting high fat, sugar and salty foods to no more than once or twice a week.
The combined recommendation for fruit and vegetables has been increased to between five and seven servings per day.
Fruit and vegetables now comprise the largest shelf on the food pyramid.
Conversely the range of servings for carbohydrates has been reduced to between three and five a day for everyone – except “active males”.
The amount of wholemeal cereals and breads, potatoes, pasta and rice has been reduced – and bakers are furious that white bread is not present in the pyramid.
The new food pyramid brings Irish advice closer to the Harvard Food Pyramid, which pioneered the original idea.
Suite (not sweets)
Launching the new healthy food guidelines, Minister of State for Health Promotion Marcella Corcoran Kennedy today said:
“This new suite of resources will provide very useful practical nutrition advice for the population, healthcare professionals and for those working in other sectors such as education, social protection and industry.
As a country, many of us do not have a balanced diet for a variety of reasons and my first priority is to make this nutrition advice available for the population.
The Department of Health said that Irish adult and childhood nutrition surveys over the past 10 years show that eating habits are not consistent with optimal health, with too much consumption of foods high in sugar, fat and salt.
Ireland has the highest average body mass index in the EU, and a quarter of our population is technically obese. Over half of us are overweight, meanwhile.
The government has announced a sugar tax, but it will not come into effect until 2018.
White bread
The Irish Bakers Association today denounced efforts to do down the humble white sliced pan, however.
“All too often the negative comments that are being made about bread by so-called “experts” are done without any basis in fact,” spokeswoman Oonagh Monahan said.
The truth is slowly coming out and these people are being challenged by scientific evidence that proves the contrary
She cited new research commissioned by the IBBA and carried out by the Irish Universities Nutrition Alliance, which finds a direct correlation between those preschool children that ate bread and increased growth and development within that group.
Yet the full report, seen by TheJournal.ie, found that wholemeal bread contributed a bigger percentage of nutrients than white bread.
The report also found a “small significant negative correlation” between the amount of white bread consumed and the daily intake of sugar and fibre.
It also found a “weak significant positive correlation between white bread (g/d) consumed and mean body weight (kg)”.
Some 57% of the population eat white bread and 72% eat wholemeal bread, the report found.
Physically active
The Government’s new healthy eating guidelines also include advice on portion sizes, plus daily meal plans for children (including for five and 10-year-olds) and adults as well as a range of information sheets on different parts of the food pyramid.
“Overweight and obesity can be prevented by a balanced diet and being physically active,” Minister Corcoran Kennedy added.
“These new guidelines reflect best international evidence and national advice by organisations working in nutrition in Ireland.
The focus is on prevention and showing how individuals can combine foods in a variety of flexible ways to achieve a balanced healthy diet to meet individual health needs, dietary preferences and cultural traditions.
“They describe how to build a healthy diet, for different age groups from five years of age, depending on gender.”
This article was originally published on 6 December 2016
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Listening to some, you would swear that white bread makes you obese simply by looking at it. An active lifestyle with varied diet (cook for yourself!) will do the trick
@Hughiealonso:
So true, however this has now become a huge industry, common sense is replaced by fads both relating to fitness and diet. All types of foods and supplements to runners and gym wear and membership depend on this.
Humans lived on Carbohydrates well before food pyramids were around.. The Chinese live on white rice and they’re some of the healthiest people on the planet.. We should be eating more carbohydrates and less Animal products..
This changes everything!
The heck it does, I love white bread. It’s more what you put on it that counts, I think. Better a sandwich than junk food.
What r u on about ?? There is soo much wrong with your stupid statements . Please tell me how Chinese r the healthiest on the planet and how early humans lived on pasta and bread?
I always had an issue with the food pyramid… It’s clearly a triangle not a pyramid
Right, that’d be the moderate side. There’s clearly another dimension for snacks and drinks in reality!
@Rob: Depends on your perspective. It could also be a food road.
@Rob:@Rob: ah no…it’s just you can only see one side of it from your perspective :)
Perhaps these portion sizes should be implemented in hospital, because my teen (durning all her stays) was given portions for 3 year olds… it mostly consisted of chips and burnt things (unrecognisable things)
I’ve never got how people slag airline food – it’s streets ahead of the random offerings you get in most hospitals. Always in crisis mode; they completely fail at basic hospitality. I’ve visited relations in hospital who haven’t eaten all day because whenever there was a meal time, they were called in to see a doctor. Begging a nurse got them an apple. Some people order out; pizzas. I was taught that an edible, appetising meal is the highlight of a sick person’s day. If you can bring in cooked food, it helps.
@Fiona Fitzgerald: When I had a bad broken arm they served me food that required the use of a fork and knife but never offered any assistance when serving out the meals. I had to call for a nurse to cut it up for me, luckily there was one free or otherwise my food would’ve gone cold and uneaten!
Northern European Humans didn’t evolve to eat year round fruit.
Interesting that the gobshiites at Safefood still think butter, olive oil etc is bad for you.
What makes them think that THIS version is correct? Remember not so long ago we were told to have almost as many servings of grains as we did vegetables? Then a few years back they decided that; well actually that’s going to kill you. Use some common sense people, eat foods in the most natural state and treat yourself. Everything in moderation, including moderation.
Minister for State Marcella Corcoran Kennedy doesn’t seem to practice what she preach.
I think she looks quite healthy
Does any politician practise what they preach?
Pushing fooking fruit juices as healthy too too. Some contain as much if not more sugar than coke…
I hope this is a BETA release of the food pyramid, otherwise the increase in fat fookers will continue unabated…
It says only one glass per day.
Yeah. There’s a huge glass of orange juice in the bottom of the pyramid. Too much sugar messes with the good fats in your body. Sugar, fruit juices and fruit helps you pile on weight and should definitely not be eaten 7 times a day. There’d be a diabetes epidemic.
That just sounds like too much food for one day to me. I eat maybe half that.
Sugar pyramid more like. Still way too much sugar and carbohydrates. There should be more healthy fats and meats and fish.
Madness that they are still pushing this type of dated pyramid but it is done for commercial reasons.
Leaving aside man made hydrogenated fats…all fats are healthy.
Very true indeed. Leaving out the treats the pyramid/triangle should be the other way around.
I once ate a fruit plata at work for lunch (strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, red and white grapes) I got terrible stomach cramps and they ran through me like the luas.
If I had a white bread roll with cheese and sweetcorn, a chocolate bar and taytoes I would have been better off!
That’s because it clears out your insides like healthy food should. The second meal you mention lacks fibre and would just sit in your gut
Fibre give me really, really stinky wind. Something I would rather not have at work :/
Also after eating just fruit. I would still be hungry, also not good as I would pick food all evening or have a meal after work at 11.30pm/12am also not good. At least I’m working off the food I eat as I’m constantly moving around, and lifting heavy items.
I’m not stationary sitting at a desk all day.
That’s where the word balanced comes in. Obviously eating only a full plate of fruit isn’t a balanced meal.
Fibre doesn’t give you stinky wind. That stinky wind is inside you anyway. The fibre simply lets your body release it. The wind is stinky for a reason – it’s toxic. By not releasing it you are simply locking those toxins inside. There’s a perfect recipe for colonic cancer if I ever heard one! Balance your diet so your wind is not as stinky and eat more fibre to clean out your insides. Otherwise, irrespective of your BMI and how you appear, your diet is quite literally goung to kill you.
You’re only allowed a biscuit once or twice a week maximum. GTF. :-P
More taxpayer money pissed down the drain.
@Keith Mitchell: Right on Brother! It should have been spent on a statue of Adolf.
No way I’m giving up toasted white batch bread :)
@Mrs M: mmmm the heel toasted.
Someone should tell the Germans and dutch, All they eat mostly is bread and pork.
The Dutch like their mayonnaise on a lot of food too. But they eat a lot of local fresh food. I think Irish people are moving towards the UK style of cheap imported stuff. Not the way to go.
@Fiona Fitzgerald: Mayo, sausages, fried things, cheese, cheese, oh and cheese..
This is proper nonsense. There is no place for grains at all in a healthy diet, particularly not somewhere as northern as Ireland, and certainly not in the winter (this is what everyone misses – the rules change depending on where you live). This applies to fruit as well. If it doesn’t grow in season where you live, don’t eat it. It’s just sugar anyway. The planet knows best. You don’t need any “diet gurus” or pyramids. Does it grow where you live at that time of the year? No? Don’t eat it then – you don’t have enough vitamin D to process it. If you live in Ireland, the lower carb you go the better, particularly if you have any kind of metabolic disorder or autoimmunity. If so, even going zero carb (in the winter at least) will be a revelation. There is no such thing as an essential carbohydrate… but there are essential proteins and fats. Wake up and ignore this ridiculous propaganda. The fact that there is still a place for a can of Coke just shows how daft this information is. By all means fill your face with wholemeal bread, pasta and fizzy drinks, but let’s not pretend they are healthy.
Well said…
no white bread has the author notified the bakeries of this and what response did they get !!!
Simple rule of thumb: If your great grandparents wouldnt recognise it as food, dont f*cking eat it. The beauty of this plan is its simplicity and the fact you arent stuffing your face with chemical crap.
Slight improvement on what it was but ultimately still lacking. Regardless of what your diet is, everyone (barring children & pregnant women) benefit hugely from fasting. There are many ways to fast, investigate them yourself & find one that works. Eat, stop, eat by Brad pilon is an excellent book on this topic.
Why does dairy still have a shelf?
It would make a mess in the fridge otherwise.
@Rebecca Jane Hegarty: You and I both know that they have to keep their cronies at the NDC happy. Not to mention the hit on the tax take of all those exports.
Brilliant
Is this pyramid practical for the nation’s mummies?
@Etherman: Yes.
Thanks Fozz. I will put a hold on my strongly worded letter.
No, the mummies are too wrapped up…
Fake Food – not Fast Food is the problem.
Ireland has not yet banned the fake Trans Fats in many processed packaged foods.
US banned Trans fats from 2018
Denmark since 2006
Switzerland since 2009
Argentina since 2014
EU …. not on the agenda!
Ban of fake Trans fats can completely reverse Diabetes Type 2 because cell wall returns to natural fat with insulin receptors that work again. Good natural fat from nuts .. especially Walnuts.
Out of interest could you list somr common foods with these trans fats?
The new pyramid is to clustered ! It’s to detailed. Needs a designer to get the message across better.
Most of the comments above show that widespread lack of knowledge about how the body actually uses and extracts nutrients from food. Sugar in any form whether it be from fruit (fructose) dairy products (lactose) or sweets and junk food (glucose, dextrose, maltose) and processed grains should be reduced dramatically f not omitted entirely. Unless you are extremely active we simply do not need the extra energy. There is obvious political involvement with any nutritional guideline; the first food pyramid was funded by the massive wheat industry. Read between the lines and do your research.
It makes a change to see the journal promoting healthy eating for once… :)
Eat from nature’s garden fruit veg white bead is full of sugar and gluten very bad for your system go brown wholemeal/grain easier to digest more filling
This food pyramid similar to the previous one is based on waffle not science. If anyone in interested in a food pyramid based on science, have a look at https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/pyramidtest/ and also https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/healthy-eating-plate/. Note where fats are in the pyramid. Have a nice day.
Looks at the state of it! There was even a decent reference in the Havard option,
and still managed to make a total mess of it… clipping out images from a google
search and slapping them in a power point doc!!! I like how they clearly don’t give
a sh!t if people read it or not… I’m off to eat a loaf of white bread in protest.
Let food be your medicine, and medicine be your food.
Serves bakers right for adopting the CBP.
and dr eva says we shhouldnt eat 5 fruit a day only 2 because of sugar
““Find what you love and let it kill you.” — Charles Bukowski”
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