What we eatWe say we want to eat healthily, but we also want to do it quickly. Maybe we need to reassess our relationship with food, writes Paul Cullen

Time is the missing ingredient in the Irish diet. Increased employment, particularly of women, and longer commuting distances are among the factors squeezing the time we allocate to food - its preparation, consumption and enjoyment.

Such changes in society are driving up demand for pre-prepared food that tends to be high in fat, salt and cholesterol. The resulting energy-dense diet, along with reduced physical activity, much of it because of hours spent behind the wheel of a car or sitting at a desk, is driving the relentless expansion of Irish waistlines over the past 20 years.

At the same time, we have never before had so much choice available in our stores - food from every part of the world, to suit every taste and dietary requirement, and available right through the year, regardless of season.

Where time is tight, food is everywhere and convenience is king.

Increasingly, we want foods that are easy to prepare and ready to hand. Eating is something squeezed in between other activities, such as the TV dinner during the ad-break or the desktop sandwich during "lunchtime". It's a global trend, pioneered by the spiritual home of fast food, the US. There, an astonishing 15 per cent of food is consumed in cars, while apartments in New York are being sold with kitchens as optional.

"We're going the same way," says Prof Patrick Wall of UCD. "You can't get a garage to mend a puncture but they'll happily sell you a breakfast roll or a coffee." Food on the go is everywhere, even in many hospitals and secondary schools, where lines of vending machines selling convenience food confront the visitor.

Almost 70 per cent of Irish people pick foods that are quick to cook, according to a Bord Bia survey, and half of us use a lot of ready-to-eat food at home. Less than half of us cook regularly, perhaps because 40 per cent regard it as a chore.

Yet more than 80 per cent of us say we try to buy foods that are natural and over 70 per cent are willing to pay more for healthier foods. Foods such as powdered desserts, frozen curries and packet soup have all but disappeared because of their unhealthy image.

According to Tara McCarthy, manager of Bord Bia's consumer foods division, there is clear evidence from the UK that the "health agenda" is influencing consumer demand. "The older we get, the more concerned we become about our health. At the same time, the ageing of the population and the obesity crisis are exerting a bigger drain on public finances, so government is taking a more active role in health promotion."

Even in the snack sector, she points out, it is the relatively healthier end of the spectrum that is growing; cereal bars in the biscuit sector, for example.

These trends have forced food manufacturers to change. Walkers have cut the levels of saturated fat and salt in their crisps, prompting rivals to follow suit. Birds Eye, Kraft and Heinz have all reduced salt content in their products, while in the US, Kraft has stopped advertising to under-12s.

McCarthy splits the £45 billion sterling UK market into "convenience", "indulgence" and "health" food. The first two markets are static while the third is growing, but the real killings are to be made by developing new products that span the different sectors. Hit all three headings, she says, and you're in the "eureka zone".

It might seem a tall order to develop a product that is both healthy and indulgent, but it can be done - witness the massive success of smoothies in recent years.

The problem is that everyone wants a piece of the action, and the product claims are piling up. One marketing expert tells me blithely about getting "a full fat feel from a low-fat product" without any sense of squaring a circle. Claims such as "organic" and "probiotic" have been seriously undermined by over-use. Products sold on the basis of being low in one of the undesirables - salt, sugar or fat - are often high in one of the others. Nonetheless, sales of so-called "functional foods" making extravagant health claims are growing at 20 per cent a year.

The emphasis on healthy eating has led to a small increase in fish consumption - from 59 times a year in 2003 to 68 times a year in 2005 - and fish is now second in popularity after chicken, according to Bord Iascaigh Mhara.

But in general, while consumers may aspire to healthy eating, their follow-through is in doubt. McCarthy says she is familiar with the "diet on Monday, gin and tonic by Thursday" syndrome, and manufacturers know that while consumers want healthy food, they also want it quick and they are not averse to an indulgent treat.

As our craving for food has grown, so have the portion sizes we award ourselves - with encouragement from industry. When we were young, my generation ate Choc Ices; our children eat far larger Magnums. Crisps, chips, snack-bars and other foods have all been super-sized. "All you can eat" buffets proliferate in a world of cheap, mass-produced food. In a generation, the size of salty snacks has grown by 60 per cent and soft drinks are 50 per cent larger, according to last year's report of the National Taskforce on Obesity.

But junk food fools our normal processes of appetite regulation, leaving us still feeling hungry and demanding yet more to eat, a phenomenon nutritionists refer to as "passive over-consumption".

While we take less exercise than ever, our food is increasingly travelling long distances just to end up on our plates. A demand for year-round produce has prompted the big retailers to fill the seasonal gaps with imports. Their shelves heave with fruit and vegetables brought in from far corners of the earth on gas-guzzling cargo aircraft - blueberries from Chile, for example, or mangetout from Zimbabwe. To keep the produce fresh and kill harmful bacteria, this food is irradiated, a process which also kills important nutrients.

The concentration of retail ownership in the hands of supermarkets and chains of convenience stores has worked against local suppliers supplying local produce on a seasonal basis. The big combines constantly strive to minimise the number of suppliers they use, and central warehousing works against the small local producer. While the number of organic farms in Ireland has increased 10-fold in a decade, they still constitute a tiny proportion of overall agricultural output.

Perhaps the solution to our diet issues lies in finding the time to renew our relationship with food. As Dublin GP Dr Tony O'Sullivan puts it, "we know how to eat food but we also need to learn how to make it. School students are not taught how to prepare a dinner. We have a transition year, and yet people come out of it and can't boil an egg."

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