In a bid to meet per day calorie intake of their babies, Irish parents were found mixing McDonald's meals with the infant's food.
A survey was conducted to find out possible methods to combat obesity in toddlers. "We questioned mothers in inner city Dublin going to get McDonalds, and blending it and giving it to her young child," Orlaith Blaney, chief executive of McCann Blue advertising agency, said at Food Safety Authority of Ireland conference.
The researchers, for example, said a four-year-old was fed three bowls of cheerios, two yoghurts, a banana, an apple and three slices of toast by his parents.
"These are really serious issues that are happening. That's the sharp end of the spectrum but there's all kinds of variations in between," Blaney said.
The researchers blamed the parents for putting their children at obesity risk. According to Blanely, advertising also played an important role in controlling children's eating habits. She explained that the advertisers lured the children for junk food with the delicious looking meals.
According to Professor Michael Gibney, the head of Centre for Food and Health in UCD, it is a difficult task for the FSAI to regulate food intake among the people. "Unlike other species, we divide labour. No other species does this. Each individual animal looks after their own needs, but we humans entrust our food supply to others," he said.
"This now creates a food chain, which will be subject to market forces and to food availability which makes it fickle, in a way not seen for other species. We also over-rule our biology. You might want to have another helping of potatoes, but you don't because you feel it might be bad manners" Gibney concluded.
