Obesity Crisis 'More Lethal Than Smoking'

Oct 19, 06:10 PM

Current Headlines: By Helen Bruce

NEW research shows that obesity, which is continuing to increase at alarming levels, dramatically shortens your life.

And the threat is so great that it could even become more dangerous to the population than smoking.

While smoking reduces life by an average of 10 years, the new data says being obese can reduce a person's life-expectancy by up to 13 years.

The Foresight report in Britain found that being obese, with a body mass index (BMI) of more than 30, knocks nine years off a person's life, while men with a BMI of more than 45 could lose 13 years.

Irish Heart Foundation chief executive Michael O'Shea said yesterday: 'Ireland, and indeed Europe, is in the throes of an obesity epidemic, and it is threatening to reverse the downward trend in mortality from heart disease which has occurred in the last 20 years.' The report's lead author, Prof David King, said modern life, with the easy availability of cheap, unhealthy food and families relying on their cars, means it is almost impossible for some people to avoid putting on weight.

But he added: 'We must fight the notion that the current obesity epidemic arises from individual overindulgence or laziness alone.' And the growing crisis could end up costing the State more than E300million a year.

Conservative estimates show that the all-round cost could be astronomically high if we continue to keep getting fat.

And that cost will only partly be borne by those who suffer from obesity-related diseases.

They will fork out an estimated E53million a year. But the taxpayers and industry will have to pay for sick days and loss of working years due to premature death. That cost is estimated at E286 million per year The Foresight report warns that, like tobacco, the unhealthy sectors of the food and drinks industry are leaving themselves open to lawsuits.

'Diet may be only one risk factor contributing to obesity, but smok ing is just one risk factor for diseases for which the tobacco companies had to pay. The link between each and increased levels of chronic disease are well-established,' the report states.

Analysts have identified a wide range of industries potentially at risk from obesity-related claims, including agriculture, food processing, beverages, food distribution and retail, restaurants, advertising, media, toymakers and even sporting and entertainment event organisers. Each is involved in some way in marketing potentially harmful food products to obese people.

The report adds that as well as the human cost of lives lost to obesity, the economic cost will be huge. 'From an economic perspective, predictions are for sharp rises in the costs to the taxpayer of treating obesity and related chronic illness,' it states.

'There is a good business case for public health investment, but challenges remain in knowing how to allocate funds effectively, and finding the right boundaries of what some consider to be "nanny state" intervention.' The Foresight report, compiled by 250 leading British scientists, believes the current obesity epidemic will take 30 years to reverse.

Its publication came on the same day as the Irish Heart Foundation made the bleak prediction that half the population will be overweight in just 25 years.

It said the worrying trend towards obesity in Britain was being mirrored here, and called on politicians to put the issue at the top of their agenda.

The latest figures show that more than 300,000 children in Ireland are overweight or obese, and this figure is growing by 10,000 a year.

One in five adults is now obese and two out of five are overweight.

According to the Foresight report, by 2050 about 60 per cent of men, 50 per cent of women and 25 per cent of children in Britain will be clinically obese.

The report expects Type 2 diabetes to rise by 70 per cent, strokes to go up by 30 per cent, and coronary disease to increase by 20 per cent.

(c) 2007 Daily Mail; London (UK). Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.