If governments do not invest in treatment, early intervention and prevention, the cost of treating ill health caused by obesity could continue to rise, World Obesity said today.

According to the charity, 2.7 billion adults suffer will become overweight or obese by 2025.

Obesity causes a significance proportion of non-communicable diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, liver disease and cancer.

The costs of treating these diseases in 2014 were $398bn on diabetes, $470bn on cardiovascular disease, $166bn on new cancer cases and $300bn on non-alcoholic liver diseases.

Obesity was directly responsible for $600bn of these costs, according to the charity.

The World Health Organisation also said the number of obese children and adolescents has increased tenfold in the past four decades.

The world will have more obese children and adolescents than underweight by 2022 if current trends continue, the WHO warned.