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26 February 2021updated 08 Sep 2021 7:53am

Obesity is a dangerous health crisis – the government must act now

To tackle this long-standing issue, the health of people must come before the profit of companies.  

By Parveen Kumar

While the pandemic has understandably been at the forefront of the health agenda over the past year, our attention has deviated from the urgent need to tackle long-standing issues that impact the health of the nation. One of these is increasing levels of obesity.   

According to data published in January 2021, it is estimated that 28 per cent of adults are obese with a further 36 per cent overweight – that leaves just over a third of adults in the UK who can be classified as having a healthy weight. As for children, almost 10 per cent of reception age children are obese, with a further 13 per cent overweight, while 21 per cent of children aged 10-11 are obese with 14 per cent overweight. 

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