It's official - Britons are the fattest people in Europe, a report found today.
It appears that we have enjoyed one takeaway meal too many with a quarter of adults in the UK now termed as obese.
Ireland is a close second at 23 per cent, while Malta, Iceland and Luxembourg bring up the rear in the overweight stakes.
At the svelte end of the scale are the Italians, with only one in 10 termed as obese. The figure is also a low 11 per cent in Holland and France.
The study, from the European Commission and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), examined the health of people in 31 countries, including the 27 European Union member states.
Surprisingly British adults were not the biggest drinkers in Europe, consuming 19 pints of pure alcohol every year, which is the same as the EU average.
This is more than Germany, Greece and Italy but less than France who guzzle a whopping 22 pints and Spain who drink 20 pints.
However, among 15-year-olds, 40 per cent of those in the UK report having been drunk at least twice in their lifetime.
The EU average was 30 per cent of girls and 38 per cent of boys, with much lower rates in Mediterranean countries such as Greece and Italy, as well as Switzerland and France.
The report found that life expectancy was high in the UK (77.3 years for men and 81.4 for women) but lagged behind other countries when it came to number of years spent in good health, without physical limitation.
Among British men, the number of years spent in good health fell behind other countries including Malta, Greece, Holland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Switzerland.
Among women, the UK fell behind countries including Denmark, Malta, Greece, Iceland and Switzerland.
(Read by Lee Hannon. Lee Hannon is a journalist at the China Daily Web site.)
(Agencies)
今日发布的一项报告称,据官方统计,英国人是全欧洲最胖的人。 现在英国四分之一的成人都被称作胖子,看来英国国民们似乎外卖食品吃得太多了。 爱尔兰的肥胖率比英国略低,达23%,排在第二位,而马耳他、冰岛和卢森堡则是肥胖率最低的欧洲国家。 最苗条的人是意大利人,只有十分之一的意大利人是胖子。荷兰和法国的肥胖率也很低,只有11%。 这一研究是由欧洲委员会和经济合作发展组织开展的。该研究调查了31个国家民众的健康状况,包括27个欧盟成员国。 令人惊讶的是,英国成人并不是全欧洲喝酒最多的人,英国人每年喝掉19品脱的纯酒精,和欧盟成员国民众的平均饮酒量持平。 英国人的饮酒量比德国人、希腊人和意大利人要大,不过比不上法国人和西班牙人,法国人每年喝掉的纯酒精多达22品脱,而西班牙人要喝掉20品脱。 但是,英国40%的15岁少年平均至少喝醉过两次。 平均来看,欧盟成员国的女孩肥胖率达30%,男孩达38%。在希腊和意大利这样的地中海国家以及瑞士和法国,儿童的肥胖率要低得多。 报告称,英国人的平均寿命较长,男性平均寿命为77.3岁,女性为81.4岁。不过如果是计算身体健康、生理功能不受限制的生命年数,英国却落后于其他国家。 在健康的生命年限这方面,英国男性落后于马耳他、希腊、荷兰、冰岛、挪威、瑞典、丹麦和瑞士等其他国家的男性。 在这方面,英国女性落后于丹麦、马耳他、希腊、冰岛和瑞士等国的女性。
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