The UK has outstripped the US in its fondness for fast food, according to a new poll, with almost half of us saying we love junk food too much to give it up.
The US has fallen into second place, the survey shows, while the French are the healthiest eaters, with fewer than one in five saying they enjoyed fast food.
The research, conducted for the BBC, found 45 per cent of Britons “liked the taste of fast food too much to give it up”.
The same figure in the US stood at 44 per cent, while the United Arab Emirates came in third with 35 per cent.
Thierry Pailleux of French market research firm Synovate, which led the poll, said the French, of whom only 19 per cent admitted to enjoying fast food, valued the combination of good food and company.
Few of those surveyed blamed their government for rising obesity levels, instead citing fast food, irregular eating habits and lack of exercise the primary culprits. Respondents in the US and the UK blamed lack of self-discipline.
The UK also has the highest rate of subscription to slimming clubs such as WeightWatchers, the survey revealed.
The poll was conducted across 9,000 people in 13 countries. A quarter of women and a fifth of men in the UK are so overweight that their health is at serious risk, and experts have warned an entire generation is likely to face problems of heart disease, cancer, diabetes and other obesity-related illnesses in old age.
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