More than seven million will develop cancer, heart disease and diabetes within the next 20 years because they are too fat, a stark report warns today.
It predicts that four in ten adults will be overweight or obese by 2035, equal to just over 40 million people.
This means an extra 4.62 million cases of type 2 diabetes, 1.63 million of heart disease, 670,000 of cancer and 680,000 strokes on top of all those caused by other factors – a total of almost 7.6 million cases.
And the figures, based on current trends in obesity, do not include other obesity-related conditions such as liver disease and kidney failure.
The report, by the Obesity Health Alliance, warns unless the government clamps down on junk food firms, a generation of children face “a lifetime of disease and early death”.
The group, made up of 30 medical organisations including Cancer Research UK, the British Heart Foundation and the Royal College of Physicians, is urging ministers to publish their long-awaited obesity strategy.
Obesity rates in Britain are among the highest in Europe. More than two-thirds of adults are obese or overweight, along with a third of children.
The obesity strategy was due to be published last September but was postponed, leaving food and drink firms to set targets for reducing sugar and calories in their products.
The strategy, which is unlikely to appear until the autumn and may be further delayed due to the EU referendum, is expected to call for a ban on junk food adverts during family TV programmes and for tougher industry targets.
Cancer Research UK Prevention Director Alison Cox, said, ‘These numbers are shocking. It’s difficult to think of the impact this will have on public health and an already strained NHS. Without bold action, the next generation will face more disease and live shorter lives.”
Modi Mwatsama, Director of Policy and Global Health at the UK Health Forum, the charity which compiled the report, said the study was a ‘wake-up call’. She added, “We can’t expect industry to make changes on their own… Without government action, our children face a life of disease and early death.”
Ministers announced a sugar tax on soft drinks in April’s budget, due to come into force in 2018/19. Many experts suspect it will not be implemented as the government will say the industry has done enough to reduce sugar voluntarily.
Tam Fry, of the National Obesity Forum charity, urged the government to publish its obesity strategy immediately after the referendum at the end of the week.
He added, “Not to do so would be yet another betrayal by the government in safeguarding our children’s future health.”
A Department of Health spokesman said its childhood obesity strategy would appear ‘shortly’, adding, “The strategy will look at everything that contributes to a child becoming overweight and set out what more can be done.”