skip to main content

RTÉ response to Dr. Jacky Jones Operation Transformation opinion piece (The Irish Times, 27/01/2015)

Operation Transformation - Series 8 Image Name: Operation Transformation - Series 8 Description: Operation Transformation- Series 8 The five leaders at their second Dublin Fire Brigade challenge RTÉ One - Wednesdays and Thursdays at 8:30pm Airing January and February 2015

RTÉ response to Dr. Jacky Jones Operation Transformation opinion piece (The Irish Times, 27/01/2015)

 

RTÉ’s Operation Transformation has been running for eight years. Designed to get the nation moving, the series has brought an important focus to issues of health and well-being, and through its participative format offers people all over Ireland the opportunity to address weight and related health issues. In recent years the series has consistently averaged half a million viewers for the RTÉ One programme, while the Operation Transformation website has had over 5 million page views for the current series alone.

 

Each year, RTÉ One’s Operation Transformation (OT), as well as its RTÉ Radio 1, 2fm and RTÉ.ie partners,  is supported with a series of organised events, including nationwide walks, and cycle and swim days. The series culminates in a 5km run, which takes place this year in the Phoenix Park, Dublin, and at Blarney Castle, Cork,  on February 21st. The Irish Sports Council coordinate and support these events in association with Operation Transformation. Taoiseach Enda Kenny has attended several of the walks through the years.

 

Grainne McAleer, Head of Lifestyle for RTÉ Television, says: “Operation Transformation is not a quick fix; the series does not promise to magically transform peoples’ lives in eight weeks. Rather, the series is a springboard to encourage people to get healthier and change their approach to food, lifestyle and self esteem. Op Trans gives people the tools and information to change their lifestyles. Family, friends, work colleagues and communities get behind our five leaders and support them throughout the process. This can be seen during the series when on dark, dreary winter nights people take to the streets in their hundreds to step it out with their chosen leader.”

 

Healthy Ireland (of which Dr. Jacky Jones is a council member) supported the related Know Your Numbers campaign earlier this month, whereby over 450 pharmacies nationwide measured BMI for free for members of the public.

 

Professor Niall Moyna at the School of Health & Human Performance in DCU, as well as Professor Donal O’ Shea,  a leading expert on obesity and a consultant endocrinologist, are involved with Operation Transformation and believe the series has a powerful message for the public. In addition, RTÉ is piloting a new fitness plan, “Fit At School, Fit Forever”, to make physical education a priority on the curriculum for all primary schools across the country.

Operation Transformation doesn’t cost anything – there are no gym membership fees and no specialist equipment required. Dr. Jones’ commented regarding the cost of the Week 3 dinner; Week 3 dinners cost approximately €73 in total across the 7 nights. That equates to 18 portions of food (6 recipes x 2 servings and 1 recipe x 6 servings), working out at approximately €4.10 per person per meal. In reality, the Week 3 dinners will work out even cheaper due to the amount of cupboard staples on the list, like ketchup, spices, rice wine vinegar etc, which will be reused multiple times throughout the plan.  

 

Operation Transformation has always fore-grounded the risks of obesity by focusing campaigns on government policy as well as on food suppliers and food outlets.  It’s calorie-counting campaign “Count Me In” was designed to educate consumers about the number of calories they were consuming, while the supermarket campaign aimed to remove sweets from their prominent position beside checkouts.  RTÉ’s campaigns, in primary and secondary schools, are all designed to counter teenage obesity by promoting physical activity in schools.

A special catch-up programme Operation Transformation – Seven Years and Counting revisited previous participants and demonstrated beyond refute that many of the former leaders made long-lasting and continuing changes to their health and lifestyle as a direct result of their involvement with the series. Minister for Health Leo Varadkar T.D. participated in the programme saying, “What it does really, what it says to everyday people is that there are actions they can take.  It also encourages them to follow leaders and match their performance against them. What is very important too is that you are following the progress of other people, people who you can identify with. I am somebody who has struggled with weight in the past. I am a lot lighter now than I was 5 or 6 years ago. The leaders have become real ambassadors for health its quite a brave thing to display yourself and open yourself to the public in that way.”

Dr Cliodhna Foley-Nolan, Director of Human Health and Nutrition, safefood said: “As sponsor of the programme for the past 5 years, safefood recognise how Operation Transformation has created and sustained a national debate about our personal weight and how we need to address that for our long-term health and that of our children. As well as the changes the leaders make to their own lives, our research shows that they also inspire a social movement involving thousands of people right across the country, where 2 in 3 adults are now overweight or obese. Our research found that in one year alone, 186,000 people  reported losing weight as a result of following the show with 67% reporting they would continue with their healthier lifestyle once the show ended. The programme also plays an important and high-profile leadership role in real world public health issues for example, smoking and weight, fertility and weight, parenting and weight, calorie content of foods and drinks. The show continues to play a role in championing public policy issues for example, physical education in our schools, and removing sweets from supermarket checkouts to name but two.”

 

Far from being a simplistic reality show, RTÉ’s Operation Transformation demonstrates that taking a holistic approach to food, fitness, lifestyle change and emotional support and mental health are key to making lasting changes.

 

RTÉ is proud of the contribution Operation Transformation has made to Irish health awareness over the last eight years.

Date: Tuesday January 27th 2015

For further information please contact:

Rayna Connery, RTÉ Television Press and Publicity Officer, 01 208 3169 / 087 9862902 rayna.connery@rte.ie

Fiona Gilligan, Director of Communications and Marketing 01 448 0607/ 087 989 1682 fgilligan@safefood.eu

 

 

safefood Millward Brown Omnibus research April 2013:

 

Sample size: 1,028 All adults aged 15+ – LATEST POPULATION ESTIMATE – 3,595,600 adults aged 15+ years

Interviews were conducted at 64 sampling points, representative of the size and spread of urban and rural localities nationwide.

  • 2 in 5 Irish adults have watched Operation Transformation during its tenure on RTÉ (All adults aged 15+, n= 1,028)  – 1,510,152
  • 3 in 10  (of those watching the show)  – 395,516 watched the show specifically to motivate themselves to lose weight/become healthier. Of these 4 in 10 have succeeded in losing weight by the end of the show –  186,971
  • 2 in 5 lost weight at the end of OT  (same point as 4 in 10 above) (all who watched show for motivation to lose weight n=124) with the majority losing <1 stone in weight.
  • 6 in 10 OT watchers  – c.898,900 have made positive lifestyle changes since the show – eating healthier food and being more active. (All who watched the programme, n=429)
  • 8 in 10 adults feel it is very/quite important to have a TV programme such as OT that provides healthy lifestyle advice that focused on weight management and healthy eating – c.2,876,480 adults