The British Population are 20% Overweight
Official reports were released yesterday that highlighted the obesity crisis that is facing the UK.
Britain, it would seem, is following in the footsteps of our American cousins were nearly half the population is either overweight or considered obese.
The British public are eating on average 20% more saturated fat than they should, the Food Standards Agency said on Tuesday as it launched an advertising campaign across the UK promoting healthier diets in an attempt to curb the obesity crisis.
The campaign (by the Food Standards Agency) will feature a 40-second television ad shown on terrestial TV depicts a jug of saturated fat being poured down a kitchen sink, overloading and blocking the pipe.
“People say they do know that saturated fat is bad for them but they don’t necessarily link it to heart disease,” said the agency’s Chief Executive Tim Smith.
“It’s important they (the British public) make that connection, because heart disease is the UK’s number one killer, stark statistics reveal that 1 in 3 of us will die as a result of consuming too much saturated fat,” he added.
Full English Heart Attack
One of the main culprits is the traditional Full English Breakfast or “Fry Up” – the agency recommends that our food is grilled rather than fried and that we also switch to using vegetable oil instead of butter.
Consuming large amounts of of saturated fats can raise cholesterol levels in the blood, increasing the risk of coronary heart disease, heart attacks, angina or stroke.
The FSA went on to say that cutting down on the intake of fatty foodstuffs could prevent up to 3,500 premature deaths each and every year and help save the economy more than £1B a year and relieve unnecessary strain on the resources of the already over stretched NHS
In a survey, the FSA found that only 29 percent of people take the fatty skin off poultry, only 24 percent cut white fat bits off meat joints and less than half (43 percent) grill their meat instead of frying.
The question is …will the British public listen?