There has been a weight loss surge and 570 NHS patients have received bariatric surgery to lose weight, and 62 of those are under 18.

It costs the NHS between £5,000 and £13,000 per person. And obesity costs the NHS £5.1 billion a year.

Gastric band surgery is only offered to someone with a body mass index of over 40.

So someone, say, 5ft10ins and around 20 stone.

But NICE now recommend to change the criteria so more people are eligible.

Approximately 40 per cent of NHS patients who are morbidly obese will have diabetes and being obese will result in a premature life span, said a bariatric surgeon on the news.

More than 10 per cent of all NHS drug spending is now devoted to diabetes, which have sparked warnings that obesity could bankrupt the health service.

Type 2 diabetes long term is as dangerous as Type 1 as it is progressive and furs up all the major arteries, increasing the risk of limb amputations, kidney failure, blindness, cardiovascular disease.

Professor Dame Sally Davies blames the country’s high death toll on a “structural environment” that enabled junk food makers to encourage consumption.

The UK has one of the highest obesity rates in the world and the second highest in Europe, with nearly one in three adults obese.

Obesity, defined as a body mass index greater than 30, raises the risk of dying of Covid-19 by 48 per cent.

If nothing changes, more than five million people will have diabetes in the UK by 2025.

Around 90 per cent of people with diabetes have Type 2 diabetes.

Around eight per cent of people with diabetes have Type 1 diabetes.

People really need to be more responsible for their own health, not only to save the NHS billions but for their own sake.

There are currently several thousand people claiming Disability Living Allowance being morbidly obese, all funded by the taxpayers.

Tony Henshaw

Arddleen