That is the view of Wrexham GP Peter Saul who today said he is not surprised the town has been labelled as an obesity hotspot.

More than one in ten of the county's residents are obese according to data compiled by Dr Foster Research – the eight highest proportion in the whole of Britain.

The data, from GP practices across the UK, shows that more than one in 10 patients registered with GPs in the county are obese.

Wrexham is currently one of four local authorities in Wales to receive Welsh Assembly funding to implement the Appetite for Life action plan which aims to improve the nutritional standards of food and drink provided in schools across Wales.

Wrexham GP Dr Peter Saul said he was not surprised by the figures adding that there needed to be serious lifestyle changes to improve the situation.

He said: "I think it's down to lifestyle attitudes. We have got a culture of eating the wrong foods, binge drinking and not taking enough exercise.

"As a GP I'm certainly giving out more advice about weight and giving out more medication. The only solution is to change the way we live."

Alex Young, senior project manager at Dr Foster Research, said: "We need to wait a few more years before we can say definitely that things are getting worse but there does seem to be a growing problem in some areas. We are seeing parts of the outlying regions being affected rather than just urban areas.

"In the outlying areas, health services are maybe less available. In a city, the services are better, such as local access to GPs.

"There's also a certain amount of social stigma attached to being obese, it may be that these obese people are not going to see their GP.

"However, we need to bear in mind that some PCTs are better at recording the data than others which could affect the results."

Government figures suggest that two-thirds of adults and a third of children are either overweight or obese in the UK. This could rise to almost nine in 10 adults and two-thirds of children by 2050, putting them at serious risk of heart disease, diabetes and cancer.

Estimates from 2002 show that people who are overweight or obese cost the economy £7 billion in treatment, benefits, loss of earnings and reduced productivity. By 2050, this figure could be £50 billion – almost half the NHS's yearly budget.

Shetland was named the most obese part of the UK, but the region's NHS Trust say the research is based on flawed data – with data taken from only 1,000 patients at a single GP practice.

TOP TEN MOST OBESE AREAS IN THE UK:
1) Shetland: 15.54 per cent of residents classed as overweight.
2) Torfaen: 13.9 per cent
3) Blaenau Gwent: 12.5 per cent
4) Neath: 11.9 per cent
5) Caerphilly: 11.1 per cent
6) Rhondda: 11.1 per cent
7) Barnsley: 10.8 per cent
8) WREXHAM: 10.8 per cent
9) North Lincolnshire: 10.7 per cent
10) Merthyr Tydfil: 10.6 per cent

Why do you think so many people in Wrexham are fat and what should be done about it, if anything?

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