Beer belly. Photograph: Graham TurnerBeing named as Britain's fattest city is one award the people of Bradford in West Yorkshire aren't likely to be boasting about anytime soon.
Bradford won the dubious honour in a fat list compiled by Men's Fitness magazine, which looked at the lifestyles of inhabitants of 22 UK cities. The survey examined how much alcohol people drink, how much junk food they eat, the rate of heart disease, and the number of fast food outlets. This was compared with gym membership, availability of open spaces and the amount of fruit and veg eaten.
Given these criteria, Bradford's No 1 position is not so surprising.
After all, there are cheap curry houses on all almost every major street in the city centre, while a pint still costs less than £2. The city contains some of the most deprived neighbourhoods in England - and poverty is strongly linked to poor diet. Research by the city's council last year found that two-thirds of the adult population was overweight, and recommended appointing an obesity tsar to tackle the problem.
On the surface, the survey seems to reinforce the idea of a north-south divide in the UK's health. No doubt plenty will think Glasgow came in at fifth on the list due to the local delicacy of deep-fried Mars bars. But do the results mean that all northerners are really junk food-scoffing, beer-swilling couch potatoes as portrayed on the Royle Family sitcom? Hardly.
Firstly, while there are no southern cities in the fat list top 10, there are only four in the entire list of cities examined for the survey. It might be more helpful to find out if there's a big difference in the lifestyle of people in rural communities and those living in urban areas.
There's also the question of whether gym membership is a fair reflection of how much exercise people actually do. Research has found that one in five gym members go less than once a month. So the findings might be best taken with a pinch of salt - washed down with a kebab.
