UK is world’s second fattest nation

LONDON - A survey has revealed that Britain has become the second fattest nation in the world after the United States, with nearly two thirds of its citizens being overweight.

The national obesity report said that the proportion is rising and will keep doing so in the next decade.

“There is a frightening increase in the epidemic. We’ve not reached the plateau yet,” the Daily Express quoted the report’s author, Franco Sassi, as saying.

Statistics from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development show that two out of three British men are overweight and a quarter of the population is classed as obese.

But the proportion of overweight people is predicted to rise 10 percent in the next 10 years to nearly 70 percent.

The first-ever obesity forecast by the OECD blames the weight crisis on the rise of cheap food and hectic lifestyles.

“Food is much cheaper than in the past - in particular food that is not particularly healthy - and people are changing their lifestyles,” Sassi, a former London School of Economics lecturer, said.

“They have less time to prepare meals and are eating out more in restaurants,” he stated.

The report also showed that severely obese people die between eight and 10 years earlier than people of normal weight. They are more likely to develop diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer.

Health care expenditure for an obese person is at least 25 percent higher.

Around one in three British children is classed as overweight, although the figure has fallen from 40 percent in 2005. (ANI)