Nearly 3m young adults overweight

 Four in 10 young adults in Britain are overweight or obese, according to figures released by NHS Digital.

Nearly three million 16 to 24-year-olds weigh too much – a million more than two decades ago, the statistics reveal. Thirty-nine per cent of the age group are overweight or obese, up from 27 per cent in 1993.

Prof Lord Ian Mccoll, a former surgeon, said: “Overweight and obese young people may well end up living shorter lives than their parents, most of whom were slim in their youth.”

Modern diets, sedentary lifestyles and successive governments’ failure to cut childhood obesity have been blamed for the increase. A spokesman for the Department of Health said the Government was taking a “comprehensive approach” to tackling obesity.