PEOPLE in South Tyneside are among the most inactive in the country according to a new review of obesity.

NHS Digital’s annual review found almost a third of people in South Tyneside were inactive.

Nationally, it found one in four adults gets less than 30 minutes of exercise a week, with women more likely to be inactive.

Only about a quarter of adults eat the recommended five portions of fruit and vegetables a day, with 58 per cent of women and 68 per cent of men considered to be overweight or obese.

Obesity has risen from 15 per cent of adults in 1993 to 27 per cent in 2015.

Meanwhile, morbid obesity has more than tripled since 1993, to reach two per cent of men and four per cent of women in 2015.

The report also showed high numbers of children being overweight, with more than one in five children in reception class being overweight or obese in 2015/16, and more than one in three in year six.

Yesterday, Public Health England (PHE) published new voluntary targets for the food industry to reduce sugar levels by 20 per cent by 2020 in nine categories of food popular with children.

The NHS Digital report found only 26 per cent of adults ate the recommended five portions a day in 2015. Some 47 per cent of men, and 42 per cent of women ate fewer than three portions a day.