Obesity warning due to heart disease concerns

British men are the most obese across Europe, according to a new report, leading to worries over an increase in deaths from heart disease and strokes in the UK.

Published in the European Heat Journal, the Cardiovascular Disease Statistics 2017 finds that 26.9 per cent of men in Britain were reported as clinically obese, alongside 29.2 per cent of women - making Britain the most obese nation on the index.

Additionally, 40 per cent of adults in Britain are insufficiently active, the third highest out of 36 countries who reported data, while 27.1 per cent were found to have drunk heavily in the last 30 days, ranking tenth out of 47 countries.

The research paper warns that progress made in tackling heart disease risk is being ‘eroded by the obesity epidemic’.

Dr Adam Timmis, lead author from Barts Heart Centre, said: “Heart disease still remains the leading cause of death for middle income countries, while declines in high-income countries mean that cancer deaths have now become more common there. But this downward trend for high-income countries is being threatened by the emerging obesity epidemic that is seeing rates of diabetes increase almost everywhere."