Now England is overtaking U.S. on child obesity
PRIMARY school children in England are overtaking those in the US for obesity, figures show.
Some 20 per cent of English pupils aged ten and 11 are now classed as obese, according to official statistics.
This compares to 18.5 per cent for children in the US aged between nine and 11.
When it comes to secondary school pupils, 23 per cent of 11to 15-year-olds in England are obese. This compares to 20.6 per cent in America.
‘Our worst fears have come to pass,’ said Simon Capewell, a professor in public health at the University of Liverpool.
‘We have completely adopted the American lifestyle with the inevitable consequences. The Government needs to stand up for our children.
‘We have an obesity epidemic in children and this translates into an epidemic of disease in adults of diabetes, heart disease, stroke, common cancers and mental health problems.’
Speaking to The Sunday Times, he added: ‘This is a preventable catastrophe.’ The English figures come from the annual Health Survey for England, which has been running since 1991 and involves 8,000 adults and 2,000 children.
The US data is gathered by the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.
When the whole population is taken into account, America is still the most obese country out of the 34 developed world countries in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, which includes the UK. Meanwhile, obesity rates in adults in the UK are rising – from 14 per cent to 26.9 per cent between 1991 and 2015.
In the US obesity rates rose from 23.2 per cent in 1991 to 38.2 per cent in 2014.
The figures come as the Government is expected to unveil a new anti-obesity strategy in the next few weeks. A Government report has warned that obesity rates are likely to rise to half of adults by 2050, costing the NHS about £10billion a year.
Children in state schools in England have weight and height measured in reception year – aged four to five – and Year 6 when they are ten or 11.
Wales measures only reception children, with 14.5 per cent found to be overweight and a further 11.7 per cent obese.
Scotland records weight and height in the first year of primary when 12 per cent of pupils are at risk of being overweight and 10 per cent are at risk of being obese. Areas with the highest rates of child obesity include Barking and Dagenham in east London at 29.2 per cent, Sandwell in the West Midlands at 27.8 per cent and Copeland in Cumbria at 25.1 per cent.
Tam Fry, chairman of the National Obesity Forum, a health campaign group, said: ‘We need far more radical policies.’
The Department of Health said: ‘We know child obesity is one of our greatest public health challenges. That’s why our obesity plan goes further than any other country.’
‘Preventable catastrophe’