Nearly all Irish adults are likely to be overweight in 15 years' time, said a study on May 05 that warned of a European "obesity crisis of enormous proportions".
On current trends, some 89 percent of Irish men will be overweight by 2030, and nearly half obese, said a World Health Organisation study to be presented at a European Congress on Obesity in Prague.
This was up from 74 percent overweight, and 26 percent obese in 2010 in one of Europe's fattest nations. Of Irish women, 85 percent are likely to be overweight and 57 percent obese by 2030, said the study, also well up on the 2010 figures.
The growing numbers of overweight and obese people are a growing cause of disease and disability around the world. "Even in countries with a traditionally lower prevalence of obesity such as Sweden, obesity rates are predicted to rise sharply," the congress report said.
Over a quarter of Swedish men will be obese by 2030, and 22 percent of women. People with a BMI (body weight index, a ratio of weight to height) of 25 and higher are classified overweight, and 30 and over obese. In the UK, "one third (33 percent) of women are forecast to be obese in 2030, compared with over one quarter (26 percent) in 2010," the congress press statement said.
Sixty-four percent of UK women and 74 percent of men will be overweight in 2030. "Overall, the data show no evidence of a plateau in adult obesity in most countries," said the statement. Other countries with projected steep rises in obesity over this period include Greece, Spain, Austria and the Czech Republic, according to the study of 53 countries.
An estimated 77 percent of Greek men are predicted to be overweight by 2030 and 67 percent of women, and the proportion of obese men and women will more than double from 20 percent to about 40 percent.