UK's young population to handle ''weighty'' issues

London, Dec 31 (UNI) Even as young Britons make a plan to eat, drink and party tonight on new year's eve, alarming statistics provide more evidence of how fast food and sedentary lifestyle is leading to one in seven being treated for obesity under the age of 15.

The number of people of all ages admitted for obesity-related illnesses has risen 50 per cent in two years.

According to the Department of Health figures, a total of almost 4,000 were treated from April 2006 to March 2007.

Experts feared that an entire generation faced an old age blighted by heart disease, cancer and diabetes with today's kids at risk of dying at a younger age than their parents.

Tam Fry of the National Obesity Forum, said obesity was a factor in a range of illnesses.

''There has been a lot of literature showing that fat children are getting fatter and, if they're getting fatter, they are going to be susceptible to a number of conditions, particularly diabetes.

Moreover, you may develop orthopaedic problems because your limbs are just not strong enough to take your weight,'' Daily Mail quoted him as saying.

Calling for children's weight to be monitored from pre-school age, he said there was a need to reorchestrate the resources to try to stop these children from getting into such a state.

Child obesity rates have trebled over the past 20 years, with 10 per cent of six-year-olds and 17 per cent of 15-year-olds now considered obese.

Adult obesity rates, meanwhile, have nearly quadrupled over the last 25 years, making Britain the second fattest nation in the developed world, behind only the US.

UNI