An Obesity Warning in Britain
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LONDON — Most British citizens could be obese by 2050, a new government report warns, and the nation’s health secretary called today for a fundamental shift in the way the nation tackles obesity.
Health Secretary Alan Johnson didn’t blame British eating habits, calling obesity “a consequence of abundance, convenience and underlying biology.”
“As this report starkly demonstrates, people in the U.K. are not more gluttonous than previous generations and individual action alone will not be sufficient,” he said in a speech to Parliament.
The obesity analysis by the Foresight program, run by the Office for Science, concludes that excess weight has become the norm and described Britain as an “obesogenic” society.
Obesity costs Britain the equivalent of $90 million a year already. Obese people have a greater risk for life-threatening conditions, including diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.
The number of overweight and obese people has tripled in the last 25 years. One in four adults are now obese, according to the most recent Health Study for England.
By comparison, about one-third of adults in America are obese; two-thirds are overweight.
The Foresight report projects that by 2050, 60% of British men, 50% of women and a quarter of children and young people will be obese unless drastic action is taken.
The study’s authors, who based their findings on research from 250 experts over two years, said there was scant proof that current anti-obesity policies worked. The government pledged to draw up new plans to combat bulging waistlines.
Solutions to the problem will not be found “in exhortations to greater individual responsibility or in the futility of isolated initiatives,” the health secretary said.