A study into child obesity in Spain presented in Barcelona yesterday has found that one out of every three children between the ages of 3 and 11 years old in Spain is either overweight or obese. This figure places Spain at the top of the list for child obesity for the whole of Europe. The study which was carried out by the Taho Foundation collected information from 26,000 children from around 30 municipalities throughout Spain.

This is the first study carried out in Spain which looks at the weight of children between the ages of 3 and 11. However the results are alarming because they show that 30% of the infant population in Spain suffers from being overweight, furthermore this figure doubles for the adult population. In contrast in France only 20% of children suffer from being overweight.

The Chairman of the Taho Foundation said that the findings of the study were very worrying because child obesity in Spain was almost 50% higher in Spain than in France. He said that the Taho Foundation was currently running a project aimed at parents and educators in order to try and improve the eating habits of the young.

Currently obesity costs the Spanish government 5000 million euros a year which is 7% of the total budget for healthcare.