Nearly 70,000 premature deaths could be prevented each year simply by improving the country’s diet, a government report has suggested.
Research by Cabinet Office’s Strategy Unit also calculated the cost of obesity to the country – including treatment, benefits and loss of earnings – was now more than £7bn.
Obesity rates had trebled in the past 20 years, and six out of 10 Britons are expected to be obese by 2050.
At the same time, a poll by supermarket giant Tesco has concluded that one in three UK adults is on a permanent diet.
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The poll of 2,000 people found the over-55s were most likely to go on a diet at some stage every month.
And shame about unhealthy lifestyles means almost half of Britons are regularly lying to present themselves as thinner, fitter, non-smoking teetotallers, a survey by health insurer Norwich Union has said. Two in five lied about their health to future employers, it found.
