Half of all children in Britain could be obese by 2050

Sophie Borland reports that the Government warned yesterday that almost half of all children risk being dangerously overweight by 2050.  Currently 16.9 per cent of boys and 16.8 per cent of girls aged between two and ten are obese.  Ed Balls, the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, said: “If the trend continues by mid-century we’d be getting close to half of all children classified as obese.  It is clearly important that we act.”  This warning comes as a study of 9,000 adults by University College London shows that women’s waistlines have grown drastically in the last 50 years (from 27” to 34”) as have men’s (from 30” to 37”).

(Telegraph, p6, Sophie Borland, 8 col.”; Mail, p29, Dan Newling, ½ page)