Addressing Obesity

It is well established that obesity (and overweight) is a significant problem in Ireland. Addressing this complex issue requires multi-agency, multi-level and coordinated approaches.

A Healthy Weight for Ireland, the national Obesity Policy and Action Plan 2016-2025, was developed to address policy and intervention options in the context of promoting healthy eating and the prevention and management of overweight and obesity.

You can watch a video of the Obesity Policy and Action Plan launch here

Some of the measures taken as a result of this policy are:

• publication of the evaluationof the sugar sweetened drinks tax.
• launch of a Safefood public health campaign on the unhealthy food environment
• a “Healthy Weight” social media Item was unpublished or removedtargeting 24-35 year olds
• development of a suite of Healthy Eating Guidelines, including revision of the whole population HEG, development of HEG for 1-5 year olds and HEG for older persons
• publication of a Reformulation Roadmapand establishment of a Reformulation Task Force
• development of a HSE Model of Care for the Management of Overweight and Obesity (MOC)
• a code of practice in relation to advertising, promotion and sponsorship of food and drink
• establishment of the HSE Healthy Eating Active LivingProgramme (HEAL)

In addition, an independent evaluation of the implementation of the OPAP and a Review of OPAP by the Department of Health were published and can be found below alongside progress reports and minutes of the meetings of the Obesity Policy Implementation Oversight Group (OPIOG).