Dr. Liz O'Sullivan:

On people knowing what is good for them, particularly as regards tobacco, young children taking up smoking may have some sense of it but their capacity to understand the long-term implications is not the same as the capacity of an adult to know those implications. In the context of what adults may know, however, and the helpfulness of public health messaging, everybody is largely aware that we should be consuming a minimum of five portions of fruit or vegetables per day. The formal recommendation is for five to seven portions, but people will parrot the idea of five a day. According to our national adult nutrition survey carried out from 2008 to 2010, the average intake in the population was approximately two and a half portions a day. According to the most recent data, from 2021 to 2022, that figure is now up to approximately three and a half portions a day. That increase comes through the course of ten years. The adult population is now consuming, on average, three and a half portions of fruit and vegetables when the education piece or the messaging in respect of five a day is universal. People simply knowing what is good and what they should do is not enough. We talked a lot about poverty and inequity. Simply knowing is not good enough if things like subsidies for fruits, vegetables and the more helpful food products are not available, we are subsidising the wrong things and foods that have a lower health profile are much more ubiquitous and affordable.