According to a new study unveiled this week, being overweight is predicted to become almost universal in Ireland by the year 2030.
This shocking finding was made by the World Health Organisation (WHO), which carried out a case study into the rise of obesity across 53 countries.
WHO found that by 2030, Irish men will be at the top of the “overweight” table, with the predicted proportion of those who are obese or overweight set at 89%. The corresponding figure for females is set at 85%.
With regard to obesity alone, however, it is predicted that the figure for women will leap from 23% to 57% by 2030.
Releasing their alarming results this week, representatives for WHO have predicted a very bleak outlook for our health in 15 years’ time; namely, an obesity crisis of “enormous proportions” across Europe.
Commenting on the findings, Dr Laura Webber of the UK Health Forum, who co-led the research, said: “Policies to reverse this trend are urgently needed. Although there is no ‘silver bullet’ for tackling the epidemic, governments must do more to restrict unhealthy food marketing and make healthy food more affordable.”
