‘GAA must take action on obesity’

THE GAA should consider running a campaign informing children that energy drinks can have ‘detrimental effects’ on their health, a senator has urged.

Catherine Noone was speaking at an Oireachtas Children’s committee yesterday with Colin Regan, the GAA’s community and health manager, about tackling childhood obesity.

Mr Regan said that while organisation’s healthy eating guidelines do not recommend the use of ‘either highly caffeinated or sugary sports drinks’, it is something the GAA does not have a ‘directive’ on.

‘Directives just don’t work. We find the advice we have been given from the likes of Safefood is that guidelines and supporting clubs in changing the culture and environment is a much more positive approach,’ Mr Regan added.

However, while Ms Noone acknowledged a ‘positive approach might work better’, she also said it would ‘probably be no harm – given how harmful [the drinks] have proven to be in many studies – to have an awareness campaign or something similar within the GAA’.

The Fine Gael senator added: ‘Because I think you are uniquely positioned to do that and for children at that age to understand that sugar-laden high-caffeine drinks – besides being an obesity trigger – that they actually could have detrimental effects on their health.’

Mr Regan told the committee yesterday that last summer, 142,467 children participated in the Kellogg’s GAA Cúl Camps, which was an increase of 11.5% on the year before, making it the ‘biggest child sport promotion in the world’.

He also outlined in his written submission that phase three of the GAA’s ‘Healthy Club Project’, which aims to support clubs in becoming ‘hubs for health’, will involve 150 clubs. This phase will run until next October. It was also stated that 50% of these clubs have ‘taken up’ the GAA’s healthy eating guidelines.

Mr Regan said: ‘Our Healthy Clubs are now trying to completely change the understanding of what a GAA club is. It’s trying to become a hub for health in the community.’