LAST WEEK I read a report about a major study that indicated there are more adults in the world that are obese than underweight.

The research from Imperial College London compared body mass index (BMI) of almost 20 million men and women between 1974 and 2014.

In men obesity has tripled in that time and more than doubled for women. Whilst BMI isn’t the best indicator these days for obesity and being overweight, it’s a fairly good way of showing what is happening when the study is so big.

Wow. They’re quite astonishing facts. Health professionals already talk about the obesity epidemic and the way things are going this could become the biggest threat to our modern world.

Being overweight or obese costs the NHS in the region of £6 billion a year, again quite astonishing figures.

The causes, and hence the solution, are complex and the environment we live in encourages poor diets and low levels of physical activity.

The government, in the recent budget, introduced a sugar tax on fizzy drinks. The estimate is that this will raise approximately £500 million in the first few years, money that is earmarked for school sport- which can only be a good thing.

Getting our children more active is one way of ensuring the next generation doesn’t continue in this vein.

The report calls for governments around the world, as it is a global problem, to take action to stem this issue. However, there is only a certain amount governments can do, in my opinion.

They can introduce sugar taxes on fizzy drinks. Invest in school sport. Build a swimming pool on every street corner with free entry. Put Personal Trainers in every GP’s office.

But if we, as members of the public, don’t accept that we are somewhat responsible for our own actions, what we eat and drink and how active we are, then it’s a waste of time and valuable resources.

I often see physio clients who have problems because they are overweight; back and knee problems in particular can be exacerbated by carrying extra weight around.

They are regularly surprised when I actually prescribe an exercise programme for them, getting them more active rather than resting. It’s not very difficult for most inactive people to increase their activity levels, I’ve spoken about it many previously in this column.

But it’s almost as easy for people to improve their diets. There is a plethora of information out there that we all have access to via the internet or our local doctor’s surgery.

And who doesn’t know that eating lots of chocolate and cake and takeaway food isn’t the healthy way to love (please don’t look at my personal Facebook page as it will as if me and my daughter do nothing but eat cake).

It’s time for us all to be responsible to some extent for our own health and wellbeing, and each in our own little way taking some of the strain off the NHS.