The worldwide cost of obesity is about the same as smoking or the war on terror and more than both alcoholism and climate change, according to new research.

The McKinsey Global Institute has calculated that, in the UK, the cost is £47bn, when taking into account health care costs and working days lost.

If the right measures were taken, there could be long term savings of £760m a year for the UK’s National Health Service. Otherwise almost half of world’s population will be overweight or obese by 2030 – this currently stands at 30 per cent.

The researchers argued that a range of ambitious policies need to be considered and a systemic approach must be taken. “These initiatives would need to draw on interventions that rely less on individual responsibility and more on changes to the environment,” says the report.

MGI has studied 74 interventions being discusssed or piloted around the world to address obesity, including subsidised school meals for all, calorie and nutrition labelling, restrictions on advertising on high calorie food and drinks and public health campaigns.

The main findings of the discussions paper include that no single intervention is likely to have a significant overall impact and a systemic, sustained portfolio of initiatives, delivered at scale, is needed to reverse the health burden. A joined up approach will be vital with many sectors playing a role: governments, retailers, consumer-goods companies, restaurants, employers, media, educators and health providers.

“Successful precedents suggest that a combination of top-down corporate and government interventions, together with bottom-up, community-led ones, will be required to change public health outcomes,” says the report.

Going forward the report calls for as many interventions to be deployed as possible, building co-operation and continued research.

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