UK’s obesity and overweight epidemic costs £126bn a year, study suggests | Obesity

The cost of the epidemic of overweight and obesity of the United Kingdom has climbed to 126 billion pounds sterling per year, much higher than previous estimates, according to a study.

The bill includes NHS care costs (12.6 billion pounds sterling), the years that people spend in poor health because of their weight (71.4 billion pounds sterling) and damage to the economy (31 billion pounds sterling).

Calculations, by Frontier Economics for the Nesta Thinktank, caused calls from food activists so that ministers take more robust measures to combat obesity, for example by extending the sugar tax of soft drinks to a wider range of sweet dishes and drinks.

Henry Dimbleby, the co-founder of the Leon restaurant chain, which was commissioned by the previous conservative government to write a report on the country’s food system, said: “We have created a food system that poisons our population and bankrupt the state.

“This report shows that poor diet now costs the United Kingdom 126 billion pounds sterling per year. It is not a crisis. It is a collapse.”

The fact that 64% of people in Great Britain are overweight or obese cost the economy 31 billion pounds sterling, discovered Frontier. This is enough for the government to reduce the income tax of 3p and is more than spent each year for the police in the four countries of origin, he added.

Tim Leunig, chief economist of Nesta, said: “Obesity has doubled since the 90s and causes a multitude of terrible health problems, such as type 2 diabetes and cancer.

“This means that obesity makes people less effective at work, forces them to take time to manage the disease or forces them to leave the labor market entirely due to poor health.”

Ministers are struggling with how to deal with the fact that 2.8 million people across the United Kingdom – 700,000 more than when Covid Hit – are economically inactive due to the disease, according to Office for National Statistics.

In 2022, Frontier calculated the cost of obesity at 58 billion pounds sterling per year. He revised his estimate in 2023 to 98 billion pounds sterling in analysis for the Tony Blair Institute. Its figure of 126 billion pounds sterling for Nesta is higher because it includes for the first time the analysis of overweight costs as well as obesity.

Kawther Hachem, the head of research on Action On Sugar, said that the annual cost of obesity of 126 billion pounds sterling was amazing and should be alarm.

The voluntary action of the food industry to combat obesity has failed, the ministers must therefore impose compulsory targets on food companies, supported by financial penalties, to considerably reduce the amount of salt and sugar in their products, added Hashem.

Nesta estimated the annual economic costs of overweight and obesity:

• 71.4 billion sterling pounds – cost of reduced quality of life and mortality.

• 12.6 billion pounds sterling – financial cost of treatment for the NHS.

• 12.1 billion pounds sterling – unemployment due to overweight and obesity.

• 10.5 billion pounds Sterling – Cost of informal care.

• 9.7 billion sterling pounds – lower productivity among those who still work.

• 8.3 billion sterling pounds – days of illness due to weight -related disease.

• 1.2 billion pounds sterling – cost of formal care.

• 700 million pounds Sterling – Lost production due to the early death linked to weight.

Katharine Jenner, director of Obesity Health Alliance, urged ministers to prolong the sugar tax on carbonated drinks and limit the amount of sugar in baby and toddler food.

Leunig has said that the advertising of unhealthy food should be limited, the front of the labeling of the pack introduced and more money put in drugs.

The Nesta report said that excess weight costs will continue to grow and could reach 150 billion pounds sterling by 2035 without firm action to combat obesity.

He said: “Obesity costs should continue to increase during the next decade. By 2035, this report estimates that the annual cost of the excess weight will reach 150 billion pounds sterling (in 2025 prices), productivity losses alone representing 36.3 billion pounds sterling per year.

“Without a significant change in policy for slow – and even less reversed – the growth of obesity, its impact on productivity should increase by 18% in the next 10 years in real terms.”

Wes Street, the Secretary of Health, said that more obese people in England could access NHS weight management services – and weight loss – due to the government plan for 10 years for the NHS, which is released on Thursday.