Professor Donal O'Shea, HSE Lead for Obesity, has started utilizing social media to address diet and nutrition misinformation. He received inquiries about specific diets during patient consultations. He noted the effectiveness of traditional medical publications is limited due to their echo chamber nature, while social media is where public opinion forms. O'Shea mentioned positive trends regarding obesity in Ireland, reporting that obesity rates have plateaued and there was no significant rise in childhood obesity during the COVID pandemic, unlike other European countries.
I wanted to get the facts out there because I had people coming up to me in the hospital saying, 'tell me exactly when I should start the carnivore diet? and how long I should be on it for?' I was going, eh no.
We publish papers, we write review articles that go into medical journals, but it's an echo chamber. Opinion and behaviour is formed out on social media.
Number one, we have levelled off in our obesity rates overall so we are no longer climbing. Secondly, we did not get the bump in obesity rates in childhood during COVID that were seen in other European countries.
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