Experts issue warning on obesity

Experts are warning that a combination of lack of exercise, rich foods and an ageing population will lead to obesity levels in the UK approaching half of men and over 40 per cent of women by 2030.
They forecast that the number of obese people will grow by 11m over the next two decades, to affect 26m people, if current trends continue.


The figures, published in The Lancet medical journal, were produced by an international team including leading British epidemiologist Professor Klim McPherson, from Oxford university.
Prof McPherson told BBC Breakfast on Friday that labelling across food to tell people how many calories there were, and a tax on sugary drinks, would be helpful.
He said it was the government’s job to be involved in how people ate and viewed food, “because the government has a responsibility to look after its citizens, and as things are going, people are getting fatter and fatter, and you’ll become iller and iller.’’
The researchers constructed historic trends using 20 years of data from the US and UK and plotted their likely future course. Their modelling showed that the obesity health burden would accelerate as a result of the ageing population.
In the UK, rising obesity rates were predicted to lead to an extra 668,000 cases of diabetes, 461,000 of heart disease, and 130,000 of cancer over the next 20 years.
The resulting extra cost burden on health services coping with obesity-linked problems such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer would be £2bn per year. This represents an overall increase in health spending of 2 per cent.
In the worst case scenario, almost half of adult men in the UK could be obese by 2030. Obesity prevalence among UK men is forecast to rise from 26 per cent to 41-48 per cent. The proportion of obese women is predicted to increase from 26 per cent to 35-43 per cent.
Prof McPherson advocated warning labels on food, “which gives you the number of calories it contains, so you can make informed choices, and in restaurants, having calorie labelling, so people know how many calories they are going to eat, when they go in a restaurant and so on.
”Government is doing quite a lot”, said Prof McPherson, “but not enough. The fact is, it’s going up still.’’