Obesity was leading cause of death even before Covid pandemic struck

THE overweight population of the world is the “next pandemic waiting to happen”.

That was the verdict of Tim Lobstein, policy director for the World Obesity Federation in March, when the organisation published an analysis which found that Covid-19 death rates had been 10 times higher in countries where more than half of the adult population is classified as overweight.

“Look at countries like Japan and South Korea where they have very low levels of Covid-19 deaths as well as very low levels of adult obesity,” said Dr Lobstein.

“They have prioritised public health across a range of measures, including population weight, and it has paid off in the pandemic.”

Tedros Adhanom, director general of the World Health Organisation, said the correlation between obesity and Covid “is clear and compelling”.

A month earlier, in February, a study led by Glasgow University also found that obesity and excess body fat had overtaken smoking as the leading cause of death among adults aged 45 and older in Scotland and England. The crossover had first occurred in 2014 and by 2017 around 23 per cent of deaths could be linked to obesity, compared to 19% for smoking. Even then the authors said their findings were “likely to be a slight underestimate”.

In July last year, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a raft of policies effectively mirroring what

Scotland had put on ice only a month before – from a ban on junk food deals to calorie displays on menus.

Then-public health minister Joe Fitzpatrick said the pause was “an opportunity to take stock... of the Covid-19 lockdown, including on people’s diet and healthy weight”.

It remains to be seen whether the revised plan will come back tougher, or watered down.