The obesity timebomb has exploded

As report says crisis worse than feared, experts warn:

OBESITY levels in England are soaring even faster than expected, a startling report revealed last night.

The latest figures show the nation’s ‘obesity timebomb has exploded’, one expert said as health services struggle to deal with the fallout.

Some 28.7 per cent of adults are obese, according to the statistics for 2017 in Health Profile for England’s report – significantly higher than the 26.4 per cent forecast by Public Health England (PHE).

It is also a rise on the 24 per cent seen just a decade before.

And officials warn levels could hit 33.9 per cent – one in three adults – within five years if trends continue. As obesity rates spiral out of control, the NHS is bracing itself for soaring levels of cancer, type 2 diabetes and heart and liver disease, experts say.

The report, released at PHE’s annual conference in Warwick yesterday, also revealed troubling projections about childhood obesity. At current rates, by 2024 nearly four in ten chilsaid dren could be overweight or obese by the time they leave primary school.

The report states: ‘Since 2007, there has been an upward trend in adult obesity and it has been rising faster than previously forecasted.

‘If this continues, between 26.6 per cent and 33.9 per cent of adults could be obese by 2024, although rates could rise further as childhood obesity has not declined in recent years.

‘In 2017/18, 34.3 per cent of 1011-year-olds were overweight or obese – the forecasted figure is between 33.4 per cent and 38.1 per cent by 2024/25.’

Professor John Newton, PHE’s director of health improvement, yesterday the Government has a ‘moral responsibility’ to take further action – such as limiting junk food advertising – to help reverse the epidemic. He said in some parts of the country children are twice as likely to be overweight or obese than in others.

‘We need to build healthy communities and give every child a chance to grow up in healthy communities,’ he said. Tam Fry, of the National Obesity Forum, said the new figures were entirely predictable.

‘It comes as no surprise whatsoever, nothing has been done of any consequence to mitigate obesity apart from the sugary drinks levy,’ he said, adding: ‘The obesity timebomb has exploded, the shrapnel is all over the place and emergency services have not yet leapt into action.’

Health Secretary Matt Hancock, who addressed the conference yesterday, said people must take more responsibility for their own health.

But he added when the Government does get involved in public health, children should be the focus.

He said: ‘If there is nannying to be done, then let’s do it really, really well. But as a child grows up, and transitions into adolescence and then adulthood, we must be crystal clear with them: they are active participants in their own health.’

‘It is no surprise whatsoever’