Most Britons will be obese in 25 years

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Britons are getting fatter

The majority of Britons will be obese within 25 years, scientists have warned.

Our expanding waistlines could lead to the first drop in national life expectancy for two centuries.

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Record numbers will be so grossly overweight that they will die from strokes, heart attacks and cancers, according to estimates.

The number with type two diabetes, which is caused almost exclusively by fat, is due to increase as much as tenfold to 19million.

The disease is thought to reduce life expectancy by at least eight years.

It can also lead to blindness, heart attacks, strokes, kidney failure and even amputation.

Oxford University scientist and Government adviser Professor Klim McPherson paints a grim picture of a nation eating itself to death in his report on obesity.

In 1980, 8 per cent of adults were classified as obese. By last year that had rocketed to around 23 per cent in England.

Using existing data, the scientists have forecast the numbers which will be obese in each social class and each region in each year between now and 2050.

Professor McPherson, who advises Foresight, the Government's agency assessing future challenges for Britain, says that on current trends, half of the population will be clinically obese by 2032.

Britain could even overtake the US where an estimated one third of the population is obese, to become the fattest nation on earth.

British women are already the fattest in Europe, with 23 per cent clinically obese. Men fare little better, at 22.3 – behind only Malta.

The impending health catastrophe is being fuelled by aggressively marketed, fatty fast food and inactive lifestyles.

Experts warn that unless urgent action is taken, an entire generation faces early death or an old age blighted by disease.

Most incredibly, life expectancy, which most experts have predicted will keep rising, could start to fall again.

Overall, obesity is thought to knock nine years off the average lifespan.

It already costs the NHS £1billion a year, a figure which is expected to grow as fast as the national girth.

Tim Marsh of the National Heart Forum, an alliance of more than 50 healthcare organisations, said: "People talk about an obesity timebomb but many argue that it has already exploded."

Dr Colin Waine, director of the National Obesity Forum, said the findings were "very frightening".

"These predictions won't come as a surprise to people working in the field. Along with every rise in the prevalence of obesity, we see a rise in the prevalence of type two diabetes.

"By 2020, if things continue as they are, one fifth of the NHS budget will be being spent on diabetes and its ramifications."

Dr Waine said the Government showed signs of "beginning to wake up" to the problem.

"here are good things happening in some parts of the country, but we seem to lack a national strategy," he said.

"And if ever there was a need for one, this report outlines it. We need measures to ensure a better, more nutritious diet for the nation.

"We really need to think about things like the pedestrianisation of city centres, so that at least people walk between shops."

Tory health spokesman Andrew Lansley said: "There's clearly a lack of joined-up thinking on the many factors needed to tackle obesity which means we run serious risks for the future." A Health Department spokesman said: "The bottom line is Government will support people to lead healthy lives but people need to take responsibility for their health."

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