Britons dying three years early due to obesity
Crisis cuts average life expectancy
THE obesity epidemic has cut average UK life expectancy by nearly three years, a major study has revealed.
Britons currently live to an average age of 81, but experts say this would be closer to 84 if a third of us were not overweight.
The crisis also hits people in the pocket, adding an extra £409 a year to tax bills to cover the costs to the NHS and the economy.
The analysis by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) found 8.4 per cent of health spending in the UK goes on treating complications of obesity.
Being too fat is proven to increase the risk of several severe and potentially fatal conditions including cancer, diabetes, stroke and heart failure.
Experts said the report was ‘not a wake-up call, but a fire alarm’ which reinforces the importance of policies such as the ‘sugar tax’ and bans on junk food advertising.
The study was published after Dame Sally Davies, the outgoing Chief Medical Officer, called for food to be banned from buses and trains and big sporting events to battle obesity.
Her comments sparked a backlash for being ‘silly and authoritarian’.
However, the world’s leading obesity experts yesterday backed Dame Sally’s calls for radical action.
In the first global analysis of its kind, experts at the OECD looked at the toll of bulging waistlines on 52 countries around the globe.
They found that the UK has the second highest rate of obesity in the EU, after Malta.
Only a handful of other countries around the world, including the US and Mexico, are more overweight.
Dr Michele Cecchini, author of the report, said: ‘In Great Britain 3.4 per cent of GDP is lost because people are overweight. To pay for the consequences of obesity in the UK it costs just over £400 in taxation per person a year. If everyone was a healthy weight we could expect an increase in average life expectancy of 2.7 years.’
In addition to the burden on the NHS, obesity also damages the economy by reducing productivity. Tam Fry, of the National Obesity Forum, said: ‘This is not a wake-up call, it is a fire alarm.
‘For years experts have been predicting obesity would shorten our life expectancy. Now the OECD have calculated we lose almost three years each on average. This is really disturbing.
‘Also, the average Joe is hit in the pocket by £400 each year. If this doesn’t spur our leaders to take action, nothing will.’
However, the report’s authors said they had no evidence to support Dame Sally’s call for a food ban on public transport.
Dr Cecchini said: ‘I know a number of countries effectively ban eating on public transport, for social reasons. In Singapore you cannot have anything but water. I am not surprised it has been discussed but we don’t have any evidence for how it would impact obesity rates.’