British women top the obesity table

After months of microwavable meals, beans on toast and plain pasta dishes, every one of us will be eagerly anticipating Christmas dinner. A plate piled high with crispy roast potatoes, mouth-watering pigs in blankets, succulent turkey, lashings of gravy and maybe even some cheeky brussel sprouts… followed by Christmas pudding and brandy butter, and a mince pie or two or a Cadburys selection box, as we slump on the sofa to watch the Gavin & Stacey Christmas Special, again.

Christmas is a time of indulgence, and for most of us it is perfectly normal, and nothing to worry about if we gain a pound or two in festive podge. However, for the disturbing 23.9 per cent of obese British women, excess weight gain poses an extremely dangerous health risk. New figures from Eurostat, the EU’s statistics agency, have put British women at the top of the league as the most obese in Europe. British men came second, with one in five having a BMI of over 30. An astonishing third of men aged between 45 and 64 fall into this category.

Young people are also severely overeating, with 16 per cent of young women aged 18 to 24 being marked as obese. Young men are doing better, with 6 per cent obesity. Neville Rigby, director of policy and public affairs at the International Obesity Forum, stated that although Britain has topped the league in obesity, in almost all developed countries being overweight or obese is common place: ‘Levels of fatness are increasing all the time,’ he said. ‘They go from overweight to obesity and affect more than 60 per cent of adults in most countries.’

Obesity is an incredibly serious problem as it can lead to a multitude of health risks. Coronary heart disease (CHD) is the UK’s biggest killer, with around 94,000 deaths in the UK each year. Eating a diet high in saturated fat causes a build-up of cholesterol (an atheroma) to be deposited on the coronary artery walls. This causes them to narrow, in turn increasing blood pressure and restricting blood supply to the heart. If this continues to happen, in a process known as atherosclerosis there is a dangerous risk that the artery will become blocked, resulting in a heart attack. Cutting down on fatty, highly saturated foods and taking up exercise can reduce this risk.

Type II diabetes is associated with obesity and affects 2.8 million people in the UK. It is a chronic condition caused by too much glucose in the blood, due to a lack of insulin. Diabetes in turn can lead to other health risks such as heart disease, stroke, amputation, kidney failure and blindness. Obesity causes the disease as fat around the abdomen, called active fat, releases chemicals that can upset the cardiovascular and metabolic systems of the body, leading to insulin deficiency. Obese people can reduce the risk of getting diabetes by losing 5 per cent of their body weight and taking regular exercise.

Furthermore, Obesity is also strongly linked to breast cancer, bowel cancer, osepheogus cancer, pancreatic cancer and womb cancer. The World Health Organisation (WHO) states that overweightness and obesity are the most important known avoidable causes of cancer after tobacco. Why expose yourself to such serious health risks when obesity is so treatable, with self-motivation and persistence?

Taking up exercise will not only help to shift the excess pounds, but will also enhance mental health, boost self-esteem and send seretonin levels rocketing. The recommended amount for adults is 150 minutes of moderate intensity aerobic activity a week, including activities such as riding a bike, walking quickly or playing tennis. This may seem like a lot, for a nation where 63 per cent of adults do less than 30 minutes a week, but when you find something you enjoy, it can be sustained easily.If you feel as though you’d like to become more healthy, tone up and make some new friends, Warwick has 70 different sports clubs ranging from Aerobics to Ultimate Frisbee. Furthermore, the Sports Centre holds ‘Bootcamp’ regularly, which is a four week programme involving intensive work outs targeted at those who want to ‘melt fat’ and improve fitness.

Starting a healthy eating and exercise regime may be tough to begin with, but with risks of CHD, type II diabetes and cancer, surely it shouldn’t be a difficult decision to make. Choosing one mince pie instead of two, buying yourself the TOWIE work out DVD as a present instead of a box of Celebrations: all a step in the right direction for the 23 per cent of obese women and 20 per cent of obese men in Britain this Christmas.