Obesity crisis risks making Britain 'fat man of Europe', warns report

The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges is calling for fewer fast food outlets near schools and a complete ban on unhealthy food in hospitals in a report which warns the crisis is at risk of becoming "unresolvable". By 2050 more than half of adults will be seriously overweight and tough measures are needed to prevent the situation spiralling completely out of control, the UK's 220,000 doctors warn. They want action from the Government, National Health Service, councils, food firms, and parents in order to stop "generation after generation falling victim to obesity-related illness and death", according to The Guardian newspaper. Doctors are united in viewing obesity - the consequences of which include diabetes, heart disease and cancer - as the single greatest public health crisis facing the country, the report says. The epidemic means that people are dying needlessly from avoidable diseases, it adds. The report criticises both current and previous governments for "piecemeal and disappointingly ineffective" attempt to deal with the problem, given that one in four adults in England is obese and these figures are set to climb to 60 per cent of men, 50 per cent of women, and 25 per cent of women over the next 37 years. The statistics have made the UK the "fat man of Europe", leading the academy to draw up a 10-point-plan at the end of their year long consultation on the topic