Obesity ‘worse than smoking’

OBESITY now causes more deaths from heart conditions than smoking, according to a study.

There are about 31,000 avoidable deaths from heart disease due to obesity each year in the UK – compared with around 21,000 caused by smoking.

The British Heart Foundation said that 85 people are losing their lives each day because their excess fat leads to conditions such as heart attack or stroke.

Two thirds of all adults in the UK are now overweight or obese – more than 15million are obese. It means the disease now causes a similar proportion of deaths from heart conditions as smoking does. Some 53 per cent of deaths attributable to obesity in the UK are from heart and circulatory diseases.

BHF chief executive Dr Charmaine Griffiths said obesity is having ‘tragic consequences’. The charity urged the Government to implement its anti-obesity strategy such as a 9pm watershed on junk food adverts.