UK women are 'fattest in Europe'

[Winner]

From BBC. Here's the Eurostat press release, read it.

It's interesting how obesity correlates with age and education level. The young and the educated tend to be far less obese than the old and the uneducated. In Czechia, this is especially true for women.

"Among the 19 Member States for which data are available, the proportion of obese people in the adult population varied in 2008/9 between 8.0% and 23.9% for women and between 7.6% and 24.7% for men. In the USA, the corresponding figure was 26.8% for women and 27.6% for men in 2009."

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The UK has more obese women than any other country in Europe, according to European Union figures.

Data agency Eurostat, which looked at 19 countries, found nearly a quarter of UK women - 23.9% - were recorded as being obese in the year 2008 to 2009.

Just over 22% of UK men were classed as obese, coming second only to Malta.

A person is defined as obese if their body mass index (BMI), the result of a calculation involving weight and height, is above a certain level.

The BMI correlates fairly well with body fat.

Statisticians found the share of overweight and obese people increases with age in all of the 19 member states that data was available for.

The data come from the European Health Interview Survey (EHIS) and was published by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.

After the UK, the countries with the highest levels of female obesity were Malta, with 21.1%, and Latvia, where 20.9% fulfilled that criteria.

Meanwhile, after Malta and the UK, the countries with the highest instances of male obesity were Hungary - where 21.4% fall into that category - and the Czech Republic, where 18.4% are classed as such.

The UK's high levels of obesity are in stark contrast to those in countries such as Romania, where just 8% of women were classed as obese along with 7.6% of men.

Obesity levels were also found to be low in Italy, Bulgaria and France.

In Italy, 9.3% of women were found to be obese and 11.3% men.

Meanwhile, in Bulgaria levels of obesity for women and men were found to be 11.3% and 11.6%, with levels of France identified as being 12.7% and 11.7% respectively.

The figures suggested that the proportion of women who are obese or overweight falls as the educational level rises.

Last month, Health Secretary Andrew Lansley launched a bid to reduce obesity levels in England by 2020.

The minister said people need to be honest with themselves about how much they eat and drink.

He said that, overall, Britons should be eating five billion fewer calories a day than at present.

 

[Mise]

We have a pretty big drinking problem here. I think that's mostly to blame.

 

[Winner]

For obesity?

 

[Mise]

Yeah.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

We have a pretty big drinking problem here. I think that's mostly to blame.

I don't really think that's it. Germany and Chechia have both a higher beer consumption per capita and a much lower overall obesity rate, although Chech women seem to really let themselves go once they get too old for porn. Maybe that's when they start to drink all the beer and skew the national average

 

[classical_hero]

Most beer is just empty calories.

 

[Silurian]

Beer and fried food is not good every day.

Thats why they call it a beer gut

 

[Mise]

I don't really think that's it. Germany and Chechia have both a higher beer consumption per capita and a much lower overall obesity rate, although Chech women seem to really let themselves go once they get too old for porn. Maybe that's when they start to drink all the beer and skew the national average

It's not just the beer though (although that's got a crapload of calories in it). It's the whole "eat a full meal then go out and binge drink til 2am then eat a kebab, chips and pizza on the way home, then eat a greasy fry up the next morning to get rid of the hangover" thing. I don't know if you guys do the same thing.

Most beer is just empty calories.

What the hell is an "empty calorie".

 

[Winner]

That's bizarre.

 

[classical_hero]

[wiki]Empty calorie[/wiki]

 

[GoodSarmatian]

It's not just the beer though (although that's got a crapload of calories in it). It's the whole "eat a full meal then go out and binge drink til 2am then eat a kebab, chips and pizza on the way home, then eat a greasy fry up the next morning to get rid of the hangover" thing. I don't know if you guys do the same thing.

I used to do that from time to time and I know people who did and still do it more often than me, but it hasn't caused any of them to become really fat. A beer gut, yes, but not obesity. How often do people in the UK usually go out drinking ? For me, it used to be almost every weekend, and now it's once or twice a month.
There has to be more to it. Poor nutrition, sedentary lifestyle and all that, but I don't see why it should be worse in the UK than on the Continent.

 

[Mise]

@Winner: It is bizarre. But it happens literally every weekend in towns and cities all up and down the country.

[wiki]Empty calorie[/wiki]

Thanks - interesting!

I used to do that from time to time and I know people who did and still do it more often than me, but it hasn't caused any of them to become really fat. A beer gut, yes, but not obesity. How often do people in the UK usually go out drinking ? For me, it used to be almost every weekend, and now it's once or twice a month.

Well, the friends of mine who go out and drink every weekend have really become overweight, even though we're only 26. It wouldn't surprise me if they kept that up for another 10 years that they got a beer gut.

And yeah, a beer gut isn't different from obesity! The extra calories in the beer gets stored as fat around the gut. It doesn't really matter where your calories come from - if you consume more than you use you'll get fat.

There has to be more to it. Poor nutrition, sedentary lifestyle and all that, but I don't see why it should be worse in the UK than on the Continent.

Yeah, I really don't understand it either. We can't be that much different, can we? EDIT: Maybe we buy more cheap frozen crap instead of fresh food?

 

[Loppan Torkel]

No stats for Sweden there, but according to the local -

Obesity is a growing problem in Sweden as in many other countries, with the number of obese people rising from 6 percent to 11 percent over the last two decades, a development which is mirrored in many OECD countries, according to a new report from the organization.

Recent figures show that Sweden is one of the OECD countries with the lowest share of obese people at 11 percent of the population, whereas the US has the largest share with 34 percent.

Japan has one of the lowest shares of obese people with 4 percent.

However, the report also shows that in Sweden, women with low-levels of education are more than twice as likely as more educated women to be over weight.

For men, the gap is less obvious but is still more pronounced than in most OECD countries, according to the report.
......
Obesity among children is another problem, and Greece tops the list there, followed by the US and Italy.

According to the report, 37 percent of Greek girls and 45 percent of Greek boys are either overweight or obese.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

And yeah, a beer gut isn't different from obesity! The extra calories in the beer gets stored as fat around the gut. It doesn't really matter where your calories come from - if you consume more than you use you'll get fat.

Beer gut =/= obese.
By definition, obesity starts at a BMI of 30. My current BMI is somewhere 26 and 27, which means I'm overweight but still far from obese.

 

[Mise]

But you suggested that you couldn't become obese from drinking beer, when you clearly can.

 

[classical_hero]

This is what I see as a beer gut. Tell me that is not obese.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

Of course you can get fat from beer, but it's rarely, if ever, the chief cause of obesity.
What I meant is that I don't believe the high obesity in the UK is caused by alcohol consumption. Just like the British drink less alcohol and are fatter than Chechs and Germans, Americans drink less and are fatter than the British.
The data we have suggest that other factors -like America's obsession with bacon and everything deep fried- are much more important.

Edit: That is obese, but it's not what I think of as a 'normal' beer gut.
This is much closer:

 

[Silurian]

Regarding beer etc I was expecting to see that the Czechs consumed less beer and more spirits and so would be getting less calories from drink but not so according to wiki.

So it is more than British beer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_alcohol_consumption

 

[Quackers]

Scotland.

 

[Silurian]

or Scottish beer

(McEwan’s export is good)