Irishmen fourth in EU obesity top ten

IRISHMEN are amongst the most obese in the EU, research by an international taskforce shows.

While men are fourth in the fat league, Irish women weigh in at seventh in the table of 14 countries.

Research by the International Obesity Taskforce (IOTF) suggests that almost one in two Irish women and almost 70% of Irishmen are overweight or obese.

The IOTF has urged EU governments to adopt the same approach in the fight against obesity as they did with the tobacco industry in a bid to protect generations of children from developing diabetes, heart disease or cancer.

"The EU's implementation of a tobacco advertising ban should be followed by similar EU-based restrictions on the targeting of the young, including pre-school children, to consume inappropriate foods and drinks," the report authors warn.

"Currently children are the focus of TV advertising, vending machines and other marketing approaches.

"The toxic environment which simultaneously restricts mobility and stimulates high energy intake must be a focus for change involving not merely health ministries but the full range of government ministries as well as the private sector."

The launch of the IOTF report came as EU obesity experts gathered in Copenhagen to raise awareness of the impending health crisis.

In a report, the experts warn that obesity rates are soaring in every EU country, with the percentage of obese people in Britain jumping from 5% to 20% in just 20 years. Over the next two decades, the percentage of obese people will jump to between 35% and 40% if changes are not made.

Co-author of the report, Prof Jacob Seidell of the Free University in Amsterdam, warned children are most at risk as they become obese more rapidly than adults.

"All the non-communicable diseases such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes are related to obesity.

"We are also see osteo-arthritis of the knees and hip an illness we used to just see in older people. Type II diabetes is a particular problem for young people, who are getting it because they are obese," he said.

"There are big problems ahead, in terms of health costs, suffering and loss of quality of life."

He urged the Government to regularly monitor the population's waistlines and bring the departments of health, education, transport and environment together to hammer out a strategy to combat obesity.

The European Commission should address childhood obesity in its forthcoming action plan on nutrition at the Council of Health Ministers meeting in November, he said.