Obese Britain: The fattest country in Western Europe

BRITAIN has the worst obesity problem in Europe, a major health report reveals today.

Obesity rates in the UK have nearly doubled since the early 1990s, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

One of the report’s authors last night warned that Britain is following the lead of the US – the most obese country in the world – and obesity has now become ‘normalised’ because we watch so much American TV.

Some 27 per cent of the British population is now obese – putting the UK sixth highest on a league table of the 34 OECD nations. Only Mexico, the US, New Zealand, Hungary and Australia have worse problems. The UK was 10th when the health report was last published two years ago.

By comparison, in Italy the figure is 10 per cent, France and Spain 17 per cent and Germany 24 per cent.

The report authors predict that 40 per cent of Britons will be obese by 2030. They say the problem has undergone ‘a great increase since the 1990s’ – with obesity rates up 92 per cent. The US rise in the same period is 65 per cent.

Mark Pearson, of the OECD, who is British, said: ‘We are more influenced by the US than people in other parts of Europe. But the other part of the problem is we didn’t take it seriously for many years. It is normal now for people in Britain to be enormously overweight. They look around and they see this is normal, in a way that you don’t see in other European countries.

‘And now it is the new normal we have this dilemma – on the one hand you don’t want to go around fat-shaming people, but you don’t want to just allow it be perceived as OK and normal.’

He said US TV is partly to blame. ‘You don’t need to be an expert to know that in Britain we watch a lot more American TV and movies than in France or Italy,’ said Mr Pearson. ‘It is about role models but it is also about our idea about what is normal changing over time – that is clearly what has happened in the UK.’

Tam Fry, of the National Obesity Forum, said last night: ‘One could weep over the figures, the result of successive governments who have done next to nothing to tackle obesity. Ten years ago a government report stated that the nation was sleepwalking into obesity – but no minister, either then or since, has woken up to the fact.’

But nutrition expert Dr Alison Tedstone said that there were ‘ambitious’ plans to tackle the problem. ‘We’re working with industry to make food healthier and we’re delivering campaigns encouraging people to choose healthier food and lead healthier lives,’ she said.

The report also confirmed that, despite improvements, the UK’s cancer survival rate still lags behind. It stands at 222 deaths per 100,000 people, compared with an OECD average of 204.

The report said more needed to be done on ‘modifying or avoiding key risk factors, including tobacco use, unhealthy diet and physical activity’.