asked the Minister for Health if he will, in conjunction with the Health Education Bureau, launch a campaign aimed at informing the public of the relative nutritional values of foods.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Food Nutritional Values.
21.
The Department of Health, through the Health Education Bureau, recently activated a campaign aimed at helping people to achieve and maintain a healthy bodyweight by means of a balance between activity level and energy intake from food and drink. The campaign was conducted through the medium of a calorie intake chart and a pack entitled "The Better Health Pack".
The pack comprised hints on exercise and energy intake and the chart gave detailed information on the relative calorific values of certain foods to enable people to plan their calorie intake in relation to the amount and type of exercise undertaken. The chart also mentions the need for a balanced diet of calories, proteins, carbohydrates, fats and vitamins and gave general information on the food and drink sources which would provide these nutrients.
To complement this campaign, I will ask the Food Advisory Committee to prepare details of the relative intake of these nutrients from food and drink which will enable the individual to plan his particular nutritional needs. The Health Education Bureau will arrange this further campaign in due course.
Is the Minister aware of the amount of junk food that is on the market at present and that school-going children are given such food for lunch? In view of the Minister's interest in health matters would he agree to introduce a campaign to educate parents as to what food they should give their children for lunch and on other occasions?
That would be a very valuable and important educative matter. It is part of the general education process of the Health Education Bureau. I will mention it to them specifically.
While what the Deputy has mentioned is necessary surely the long-term solution to this would be to educate children at school at all levels so that they would grow up with such knowledge?
That is the ultimate answer.
In view of the Minister's ostensible interest would he care to comment on the widespread criticism of the contents of the chart he referred to which was produced by a committee, which included medical people, of the Eastern Health Board?
That is a separate question.
It arises out of the answer given by the Minister and his ostensible interest in this matter.
I reject categorically those criticisms. They were ill-founded and based on a misunderstanding of the chart and its purposes and, I suggest, a misreading of the chart and its purposes. I suggest that the people who engaged in those criticisms publicly did a serious disservice to our health education service by their action.
Is the Minister suggesting that a committee which consisted of a number of doctors misread the chart?
I am suggesting that the criticism which Deputy Boland referred to was ill-founded and certainly based on a misunderstanding. I go so far as to say that it was based on a misreading of the chart.
Even though most members of the committee were doctors?
It was not a committee; it was a group of individuals.