Families think fat is 'normal'

Many parents and children do not believe they are obese and increasingly see being overweight as the norm, new research suggests.

In a study of 300 families, 40 per cent of parents did not recognise that their fat children had weight problems.

A third of obese girls and half of obese boys were described as 'about right' by their parents.

Figures suggest there has been an alarming rise in weight problems among children in recent years, leading to urgent calls from doctors and health campaigners to tackle the problem.

Obesity among children aged two to four doubled to nine per cent between 1989 and 1998. Among those aged six to 15, it trebled from five per cent in 1990 to 16 per cent in 2001.

Overall, about one in five adults is now classed as obese.

Yet parents equally could not see their own weight problems, researchers from Peninsula Medical School, Plymouth, and Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust found. A third of women and half of men who were either overweight or obese rated themselves as 'about right', their Earlybird Diabetes Study found.

Obesity can lead to illnesses such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer.

Benet Middleton, of Diabetes UK, said the rapid increase in the condition in Britain was partly due to over-eating.

'It is essential that people realise if they have a weight problem,' she added.

'Obesity is a real problem and it needs to be tackled now.'

She urged parents to keep an eye on their children's eating habits and make sure they got enough exercise.

Obesity is measured by calculating your body mass index - your weight in kilograms divided by the square of your height in metres. In Britain, people with a BMI between 25 and 30 are overweight and those with an index above 30 are obese.