Dr. Adeelia Goffe:

There were two recommendations focusing on obesity. The first was around taxes on alcohol, tobacco and sugary drinks. Reading through that, and understanding what is going on in terms of population, I do not see too much of a problem with that. There are lots of benefits to that, not just around obesity and BMI in the Irish population, but looking at other health outcomes as well, such as cancer incidence and so on. However, I did find that the ultra-processed foods recommendation was a bit vague. I found it a bit unclear exactly what would qualify as an ultra-processed food, how many people in the population would be affected by that, and the potentially disproportionate burden on certain portions of the population that might have very limited access to fresh foods or ways in which to produce a meal out of fresh fruit and vegetables.