Download Obesity `costing same as smoking`

Obesity 'costing same as
smoking'
20 November 2014 Last updated at 02:42
The report said the right measures could save the UK's NHS £760m a
year
The worldwide cost of obesity is about the same as smoking
or armed conflict and greater than both alcoholism and
climate change, research has suggested.
The McKinsey Global Institute said it cost £1.3tn, or 2.8% of
annual economic activity - it cost the UK £47bn.
Some 2.1bn people - about 30% of the world's population - were
overweight or obese, the researchers added.
They said measures that relied less on individual responsibility
should be used to tackle the problem.
Lost output
The report said there was a "steep economic toll", and the
proportion could rise to almost half of the world's population by
2030.
The financial costs of obesity are growing - for health care and
more widely in the economy. By causing illness, obesity results in
working days and output lost.
The researchers argued that a range of ambitious policies needed
to be considered and a systemic rather than piecemeal response
was essential.
"These initiatives would need to draw on interventions that rely
less on individual responsibility and more on changes to the
environment," the report said.
If the right measures were taken there could be long-term savings
of £760m a year for the UK's National Health Service, it added.
'Crisis proportions'
The initiatives assessed in the report include portion control for
some packaged food and the reformulation of fast and processed
food.
It said these were more effective than taxes on high-fat and highsugar products or public health campaigns. Weight management
programmes and workplace fitness schemes were also
considered.
The report concluded that "a strategy of sufficient scale is needed
as obesity is now reaching crisis proportions".
The rising prevalence of obesity was driving the increase in heart
and lung disease, diabetes and lifestyle-related cancers, it said.
Dr Alison Tedstone, chief nutritionist at Public Health England
(PHE), said: "The report is a useful contribution to the obesity
debate. PHE has consistently said that simple education
messages alone are not enough to tackle obesity."
Dr Tedstone said obesity required action across national and local
government, industry and society as a whole, and there was "no
single silver bullet solution".
The report was produced by McKinsey Global Institute, the
business and economics research arm of consultancy firm
McKinsey & Company.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-30122015