A recent Eurostat report on obesity in EU member states shows Romania is the EU’s slimmest nation. The study caught the eye of the UK ambassador to Romania. Martin Harris’ own countrymen came out the fattest in Europe.

Starting by highlighting obesity as a serious public health concern, the report provides data on obesity rates for adults (18+) for EU states. The results, which give an overall percentage and percentage by age group, tell an interesting tale: it clearly shows large differences in obesity rates across the EU. Romania has the lowest incidence of obesity, defined as a Body Mass Index (BMI) over 30, with just 8 percent of women and 7.6 percent of men categorized as obese. The UK has the highest number: 23.9 percent of women and 22.1 percent of men. Educational level is also considered in the study and shows an almost uniform tendency for higher levels of education to equate to a lower incidence of obesity. Another trend across Europe appears to be older equals fatter. However a very high percentage of young UK women are obese- 16.6 percent in the age 18-24 bracket. In France 4.3 percent of women in this age group are obese, while just 1.6 percent of 18 to 24 year old Romanian women suffer from obesity.

See the full report here

Writing on his blog UK ambassador Martin Harris says, “I am no nutritionist so I can’t offer a scientific explanation as to why Romanians are in much better shape than Brits.”  He cites the quality of Romanian food and its abundance of fresh, organically produced ingredients as an important factor and cautions Romanians against going over to the dark side of cuisine- fast food, pre-prepared meals and the global purveyors of highly marketed, highly unhealthy junk food.

The report gives the percentages for the US as a reference point, where obesity levels were a staggering 26.8 percent for women and 27.6 percent  for men in 2009. Higher than anywhere in the EU, but Britain and a few other countries, such as Malta, Latvia, Hungary and Estonia are not far behind. Data for childhood obesity, arguably an even greater public health concern in many countries in the modern world, was not collected in this study.

Liam Lever, liam@romania-insider.com