There was a day in 2014 when one dismal statistic overtook another in the most macabre competition of all: the race to murder more of the British population than any rival killer. On that unknown day, obesity snatched the crown from tobacco. Its hold on the title has only strengthened since then.
Glasgow University’s journal, University News, headlined its researchers’ report carefully last year: “Obesity and excess body fat may have contributed to more deaths in England and Scotland than smoking since 2014”. Using health surveys of the decease of nearly 200,000 adults, researchers found that between 2003 and 2017, deaths from smoking dropped from 23.1 per cent to 19.4 per cent.
That was the good news. A decline that started about half a century
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