Obesity must be included in crossgovernment “national risk” planning along with issues such as terrorism and flu pandemics, the chief medical officer has urged.
Professor Dame Sally Davies also warned that women who were obese during pregnancy were putting the health of future generations at risk.
Her annual report, published today, calls for wider availability of treatment for eating disorders, as well as advice for employers on how to help women going through the menopause.
Its first recommendation, however, is that the government include obesity in its national risk planning. Growing antibiotic resistance is already noted in the emergency planning as a “longer-term vulnerability” of society, following a similar recommendation from Professor Davies in 2013.
She said: “Obesity has to be a national priority. Action