Britain facing 'timebomb' as its children get fatter (AFP)

LONDON (AFP) - Britain is facing a "public health timebomb", health experts have warned, after fresh data revealed that childhood obesity has almost doubled in a decade.

One in three of the nation's children are now either overweight or obese, while the number of obese children aged 11 to 15 has almost doubled in the last 10 years, the Health and Social Care Information Centre revealed.

Colin Waine, chairman of the National Obesity Forum, said the official figures revealed a "public health timebomb", and warned that children who are obese at ages 11 to 15 were twice as likely to die by the time they are 50.

"This is serious news because obesity in adolescence is associated with the premature onset of Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases," he said. "It really augurs very badly for the future health of the population."

Whereas 14 percent of boys 11 to 15 years old, and 15 percent of girls the same age, were obese in 1995, the proportion in 2004 were 24 percent and 26 percent respectively.

The annual Health Survey for England 2004 also found that among children aged two to 10, the figures have gone up from 10 percent in 1995 to 16 percent in 2004 for boys, and from 10 percent in 1995 to 11 percent in 2004 for girls.

Some 35.1 percent of girls aged two to 15 were overweight or obese in 2004, up from 25 percent in 1995 -- while for boys in the same age group, the figures were 33 percent and 24 percent.