Mr. Jorge Arroita:

The summary is that too many calories means we will get fat, but carbohydrates turn the pressure on and if one's carbohydrate intake breaks fat down, one wins.

Deputy Billy Kelleher asked how we could engage children, parents and schools. One of the most important things is that people need to count carbohydrates, although I know it is hard work. I have a daughter with diabetes and all the time need to count the carbohydrates for her to know exactly how many doses of insulin she needs. The more carbohydrates one needs, the more insulin one needs. When one eats more food, the body processes more insulin and if one does not process all of the carbohydrates, they will be stored as fat. That is the reason we are fat. Reducing carbohydrates is the most important message of all.

It is important to show from an early age in schools how to cook and eat. Cadburys is producing a new chocolate bar with less than 100 calories and it will sell for 50p in Northern Ireland. It states it will be brilliant because people will be slimmer. That is false because all of these products contain more sugar. When there is less fat in a product, there is more sugar to make it more tasty. It is exactly the same in the case of salt and fat content. What we have to do is to reduce the intake of sugar of children in order that real sugar comes from vegetables. They will be processed better and one will have real sugar rather than the sugar contained in processed foods.