Op-Ed: Figures show British women are the fattest in Europe

New figures published by Eurostat - the European Union's statistics agency - reveal that British women are the fattest in Europe.

The data was collected from 2008 to 2009 and also found that one in four British women are classified as obese. The percentage of younger obese women was also worryingly evident in the UK. A total of almost seventeen percent of British 18 to 24-year-olds are obese. Meanwhile, in Germany, almost sixteen percent of women are considered obese, while Italian women brag a percentage of only nine. On the male front, twenty-two percent of British men are classed as obese, as they came only second to Maltese men, who have a rate of twenty-five percent. Tam Fry - a spokesman for the National Obesity Forum - said that many women struggle to lose weight after child birth. "For a significant number of UK women knowing what food to buy and how to cook it is foreign territory. Mainland Europe doesn't have this problem," Fry said. "Until the UK puts domestic science properly back into the school curriculum, many women will continue to rely on cheap, ready meals and fast, processed food for their families and themselves." These figures probably explain why British people require at least 13 hugs a day.