Obesity is a growing problem in Gwent, with doctors now having to deal with twice the number of overweight people they did ten years ago. Ben Payne reports

IT may be coincidental that fat and fatal lie side by side in the dictionary, but judging by obesity statistics for Gwent their positions seem pertinent.

Some 110,600 people in Gwent are estimated to be obese - 55,500 more than ten years ago - and nearly 332,000 are overweight, according to local experts.

Dieticians at the Royal Gwent Hospital, Newport, say referrals of people with weight problems have doubled over the last 20 years.

Doctors say more people with obesity-related conditions are coming through the surgery doors, with overweight patients being told to lose weight before they can have surgery.

Health figures show the number of clinically obese people is ballooning, with double the cases of obesity recorded ten years ago.

In Gwent, around 331,800 people - 60 per cent of the population - are overweight, and 110,600 are obese.

These figures have soared from 277,500 overweight and 55,000 obese in 1997. By 2010, more than 138,000 people are expected to be obese in Gwent.

And obesity among children is also soaring.

Government figures suggest it affects around 15 per cent of all children.

Being overweight, and being obese in particular, carries serious health implications ranging from increased risk of heart disease, certain types of cancer, joint problems and diabetes.

Dr Tony Calland, 59, a partner at the Wye Valley Practice, in Gwent, has noticed a marked increase in the number of obese people in the last 30 years.

"Obesity is a much greater problem now," he said. "There are all sorts of reasons for it. We have an increasingly wealthy population, an increase in the consumption of snack and high-calorie foods, a reduction in the amount of exercise people are taking and a bigger range of television programmes and home entertainment on offer.

"People don't go to dances anymore - they are generally more lazy. Instead of walking to catch a bus people are just getting into a car.

"Alcohol has also contributed as it is more readily available than it was."

Dr Calland said that because of the increase in cases he was seeing more health-related illnesses.

"There has been a substantial increase in type two diabetes, which is directly related to obesity," he said. "More people are suffering joint problems because they are having to carry more weight, and more are suffering heart disease and related conditions such as stokes.

"If the rise in obesity continues there will be a further substantial increase in diabetes and people with high blood pressure. These conditions are treatable but at a substantial cost .

"But I think the culture will eventually change. Over the last five years smoking has become much more of an anti- social habit, and I think obesity will go the same way."

Lisa-Marie Brown, 36, deputy chief dietician at the Royal Gwent Hospital, said the number of referrals had trebled.

"People are getting bigger because they are getting lazier," she said. "It is alarming and it's set to get worse at a great cost to the health service.

"Some patients are being told to lose weight before surgery, particularly those waiting for orthopaedic surgery."