Last year Philip Boucher-Hayes took a look inside Ireland’s shopping basket and found that what we eat and how we shop is damaging our health and our economy.

What’s Ireland Eating? is back and sees Philip investigating the health implications of the nation’s diet and finds that the consequences of our food rich environment are more serious than unsightly flab.

What’s Ireland Eating? looks at the latest studies into the calorie, fat and salt in some of Ireland’s favourite foods and the latest science that could point to some of the reasons we continue to over consume and continue to get fat.

The programme looks at recent studies by Safefood which examined the fat, salt and calorie content of Ireland’s three favourite takeaway dishes – pizzas, burgers and chinese and he delivers the shocking statistics to a group of takeaway lovers.

Philip finds out how we are hardwired to like high calorie foods, how some of us may even be addicted to them and how our children can be conditioned in the womb and the early stages of life for a lifetime of obesity.

He meets dietitican Roslyn Tarrant who discovered in her research that many Irish babies are overconsuming calories and are actually on mini-adult diets.

And he learns from a visit to the National Maternity Hospital how mother’s diets in pregnancy can affect our potential to be obese.

Philip visits a major research project at St. James’s Hospital and discovers why a beer belly has serious health implications and looks at new research that suggests high sugar consumption can adversely affect our health.

We are told repeatedly that we are getting fatter, that we need to eat less and exercise more yet the upward (and outward) trend of obesity continues. Philip looks at why moderation and education doesn’t seem to be working and explores the might of food marketing against the public health messages to eat less.