I’m from Ireland I grew up in the Lake
District in Ireland and here we are in
the Lake District in Italy I grew up
with six brothers we are one of seven
sons our mother was a teacher our father
a musician and we lived on a 50 acre
farm now the reason I’m telling you this
story is because back then there was a
certain way of life that I would like
you to capture in your mind and hold on
to it throughout this talk we grew our
own food it was natural homegrown wild
fish run through the river
we were good at catching them we still
are every animal had a name the cows had
names they lived in the nature they
provided us with meat and milk nutrition
how about lifestyle the farmers were
busy from early morning in the afternoon
and they worked physically until after
sunset I want to leave that with you and
I want to talk about health and more
specifically chronic disease killers
the reality is today in Europe over 86
percent of deaths are due to chronic
disease these people are living
devastating lives their loved ones
suffering it’s a terrible situation in
fact by the time I finish this talk 12
people in Europe will have died because
of chronic disease chronic disease
deaths are premature but yet we’re
living longer the longevity line is
going up but how about the quality of
life line the quality of life line is
not staying with the longevity line what
it means is that people spend maybe up
to 20 years in poor health before they
die prematurely
oh yes we’re busy talking about
terrorist attacks aviation safety the
weather the economic situation let’s
talk about the elephant in the room it’s
time to talk about that okay it is now
time to introduce you to these chronic
disease killers chronic disease killers
that lie within each and every one of us
let’s not make no mistake about it so
number one chronic disease killer
cardiovascular disease cardiovascular
disease claims 40 percent of lives in
Europe and by the way these numbers are
similar Aviva Morse throughout the rest
of our planet
let’s take number two cancer cancer is a
disease involving abnormal growth which
invades and takes over the body we all
know about formidable cancer in the
European Commission we have the European
cancer information system and we can
tell you that this year in Europe there
will be 3.9 million new cases of cancer
over 1.9 million people will die
let’s take number 3 diabetes diabetes is
a group of metabolic disorders which
involve high levels of sugar in the
bloodstream over prolonged periods of
time ladies and gentlemen they are the
three big killers contributing to 86
percent of deaths so what do we do what
do we do to defuse these chronic disease
time bombs that lie within us oh hang on
maybe some of them are preventable would
you like to find out how preventable
these diseases are let’s go back into
number one cardiovascular disease
evidence tells us that wait for it 90%
of cardiovascular disease is preventable
90 not 990 take cancer
between 40 and 45 percent of cancers are
preventable
unless take diabetes 80% of diabetes
cases are preventable while this is just
fantastic news it’s amazing it’s
fantastic
but if we look at the reality what’s
happening today if we look at health
expenditure in Europe it’s about 10% of
GDP that doesn’t mean millions it
doesn’t mean billions it means trillions
of euros but the reality is of all that
money we spend on health less than 1%
goes to prevention so we are not here to
name to blame or to shame it is what it
is we have as humanity have created that
situation but I have more good news if
we talk about prevention there are two
main ways to prevent disease number one
and now I want to bring you back to that
image of my six brothers and I back in
Ireland
number one nutrition what we eat every
day and number two is lifestyle let’s
talk a little bit about nutrition do you
know how much sugar salt and fat you
have put through your system today
have you eaten at least 400 grams of
fruit and vegetables today that’s about
five portions how about your red meat
consumption in Europe were eating double
the amount of red meat we should and
half the amount of fish we should about
your legumes your fiber then lifestyle
lifestyle we all know smoking it’s very
bad in the European Court against cancer
is the number one killer and the number
two cause of cancer in the European
Court against cancer is passive smoking
so if you don’t smoke do not accept to
inhale other people’s passive smoke
alcohol limited limited as much as you
can and the big one
physical activity room
farmers years ago from morning tonight
what are we doing all day we’re doing
this and then we go home and we do this
and then we go to bed so basically there
are the main things now 40 years or more
have passed on today I’m in the Lake
District and Italy and I love it here
I’m a jersey scientist I’m a scientist
working on public health on chronic
disease for the European Commission’s
joint research center now I need to tell
you that the EU and the Commission does
not have a legal mandate to impose
legislation on the Member States to help
the situation
that is up to the Member States the
countries of the European Union but we
do and we can do and we do a lot of very
good work on spearheading projects let
me give just one or two examples and
then we’ll go towards the end of the
talk in the joint research centre we
have mocked school food policies the
children are the future when children
learn good habits and the school is a
controllable setting it’s an excellent
setting they will keep those good habits
just like if they learn bad habits it’ll
be difficult to change with those school
food policies we didn’t got the Member
States together and the oil exchange
practices what do you do how can we fix
this situation how can we improve this
situation we have looked to see how to
improve the uptake of fruit vegetables
and water in schools we’ve even looked
at national dietary requirements and I
can give you some shocking statistics
now let’s do it if you take plain rice
plain rice in its natural form should
contain orders contain about 0.5 grams
per 100 grams that’s a half a percentage
but if you look what’s on the market
what are people buying and eating some
of those products contain over 30 grams
is added sugar 30 grams per hundred
grams so that’s like 60 70 times more
sugar we looked at breakfast cereals
breakfast cereals all over Europe the
various categories to the chart from 0
to 35 grams per 100
grunts it was read especially for the
children the children cereals are full
of sugar they’re going to school having
already exceeded maybe their daily dose
we’ve also looked at front of pack
labeling I asked you earlier do you know
how much sugar salt and fat you’ve eaten
today
well to be honest you will be a genius
to be able to find that out because it
is very difficult front of packed
labeling when you buy something and you
want to eat it or drink it can you look
at the back of it and read and
understand what’s there we are looking
to improve that situation we are mapping
all the front of packed labeling
techniques and we will spearhead a
project to hopefully change that if we
cannot communicate this to the people
then the people won’t make the change
okay there are some examples of what we
do we could go on but I need to come
towards the end of this speech now this
is not just if you take a step on
nutrition and lifestyle it is not just
about reducing your risk of chronic
disease there are two other fantastic
advantages number one think about if 86
percent of us are dying because of
chronic disease how many of us are
already toxic how do we feel
do we feel good if we take a step in
this direction we will feel better we
will think better we will sleep better
we will move better we will do
everything better before when you
thought this is a burden this is a
stress that will suddenly become it’s a
challenge I will get over this
how well-being should not be
underestimated that is for you this is
really for all of us and there’s a
second big advantage our precious
environment
imagine if millions of people make this
little move towards eating at their
lifestyle just making that change
cycling walking to work
leave the car the air will become
cleaner take the stairs not to lift you
save energy
energy climate change we know the story
these are a lot of factors that we can
do so there are so many advantages and
looking at these figures and numbers and
saying I’m gonna do something and now
we’re almost at the end and I am looking
at you because I have one request to
please take away even one thing with you
that may be from tonight or tomorrow you
will go for a walk after dinner before
you go to bed maybe look at your fruit
and veggie uptake maybe drink more water
please take that with you you will feel
better your loved ones will really
appreciate it and maybe then we can turn
the tide of chronic disease
[Applause] [Music]