Diet, physical activity and obesity statistics 2006

Diet, physical activity and obesity statistics 2006: - download here (pdf).

www.heartstats.org aims to be the most up-to-date source of statistics on cardiovascular disease in the UK.

Foreword

• The past decade has seen unprecedented advances in the fight against diseases of the heart and circulation, collectively known as cardiovascular disease (CVD).
  
• Premature deaths from CVD are falling and treatments are improving all the time. Nevertheless, it still remains the major cause of premature death and disability in the UK.
• CVD is largely preventable and the risk factors for it are well known and amenable to modification through changes in life style.
  
• a significant reduction in the amount of saturated fat that the UK population is eating
• the population is becoming fatter, avoids eating healthy foods and takes little exercise.
  
• The consequence is obesity, and in particular central obesity, caused by fat deposited inside the abdomen, which in turn leads to the development of type II diabetes, once a disease of old age but now increasingly a disease of the young.
  
• People with diabetes are prone to develop vascular disease and suffer premature heart attacks and strokes.

Peter Weissberg, Medical Director BHF

Diet in England
• A diet which is high in fat, particularly saturated fat and in salt, and low in complex
carbohydrates and fruit and vegetables increases the risk of chronic diseases – particularly
CVD and cancer.
• Low fruit and vegetable consumption causes around 4% of the total disease burden and about 30% of CHD and 20% of stroke (source: World Health Report 2002)
• Only 13% of men and 15% of women, and 13% of boys and 12% of girls, consume the
recommended five or more portions of fruit and vegetables a day.
• Around 20% of adults exceed the recommended levels of saturated fat consumption.
• Saturated fat intake in children (around 14%), while lower than found in adults, is still above
the target of 11%.
• Salt consumption among men is almost double the recommended level of 6g/day.

Table 1.1 Selected dietary targets and objectives (also see Table 1.2)

• Total fat: To maintain the average total intake of fat at 35% of food energy
• Saturated fat: To reduce the average total intake of saturated fat from 13.5% to 11% of food energy
• Fruit and vegetables: To increase the average consumption of a variety of fruit and vegetables from 2.7 (325g) to 5 portions (600g) per day
• Fibre: To increase the average intake of dietary fibre (Non-starch polysaccharide fibre) from 15 to 18 grams per day
• Sugar: To reduce the average intake of added sugar from 13.6% to 11% of food energy
• Salt: To reduce the average intake of salt from 11 to 6 grams per day by 2010

Physical activity in England
• Low levels of physical activity (less than 2.5 hours per week moderate intensity activity or 1 hour per week vigorous activity) cause around 3% of the total disease burden and about 20% of CHD and 10% of stroke.
• only about a third of men and around a quarter of women meet the Government’s recommendation of a minimum of 30 minutes of at least moderate intensity activity on five or more days of the week.
• the ambitious target that 70% of adults should meet the recommended level of
physical activity by 2020 is unlikely to be met. Between 1997 and 2004 the proportion of
people meeting the government guideline for physical activity increased from 32% to 37%
in men and from 21% to 25% in women.
• Around 70% of boys and 60% of girls were active for at least an hour a day.

Overweight and obesity in England
• Over 7% of the total disease burden is caused by raised body mass index (BMI), around a third of CHD and ischaemic stroke and almost 60% of hypertensive disease is due to overweight.
• rates of obesity for men are 22% and for women 24%.
• The percentage of adults who are obese has increased by over 50% in the last decade. This
increase is particularly marked in men who are now as likely to be obese as women.
• around a third of boys and girls are overweight or obese.
• Between 1995 and 2004 the prevalence of obesity nearly doubled among boys (from
11% to 19%) and increased by over a half in girls (from 12% to 19%).

The adverse effects of excess weight are more pronounced when fat is concentrated in the abdomen (central or abdominal obesity) assessed using the waist to hip ratio.

• INTERHEART estimated
  
• 63% of heart attacks were due to abdominal obesity indicated by a high waist to hip ratio (for men >0.95, for women >0.85).
  
• Those with abdominal obesity were at over twice the risk of a heart attack compared to those without.
  
• Abdominal obesity was a much more significant risk factor for heart attack than BMI.
• men (33%) and women (30%) had an high waist to hip ratio.