[Rocol]

The nation is getting fatter and it is time for us all to take responsibility for our own weight, according to the Government.

More than 12 million adults and one million children will be obese by 2010, according to new figures.

Around a third of adults and a fifth of all children will be obese, statistics from the Health Survey for England - published by the Department of Health - will show.
As a result, thousands more people will suffer related diseases like cancer, heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

But despite calls for the Government to do more to tackle the problem, including curbing junk food advertising, Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt said there was a limit to what ministers could do.

"Government's got responsibility to make it easier for people to make healthy choices for themselves, but at the end of the day it's up to each of us to decide what we eat, what we drink, how much exercise we take and how we bring our children up," she said.

Obesity already costs the heath service £1bn a year and costs the nation as a whole around £7bn.

All part of McDonalds ' Master Plan '