The UK's life expectancy is rising, despite the nation's obesity epidemic, an expert has said.
Professor David Leon, a population expert at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, has analysed trends over the last 40 years.
His conclusions challenge previous claims that obesity-related health problems are slowing down the rising life expectancy trend in high-income countries.
Writing in the International Journal of Epidemiology, Professor Leon revealed that most European countries have recorded positive life expectancy trends over the last five years.
He observed: 'Despite what many may have assumed, and without being complacent, current trends in European life expectancy are in a positive direction.
'But while the European experience since 1980 underlines the centrality of the social, political and economic determinants of health, many intriguing and important questions remain unanswered about the drivers of these extraordinary trends.'
Dr Leon's research indicates that one of the main reasons for the UK's steady increase in life expectancy has been a major decline in deaths from cardiovascular disease.
He revealed that UK deaths from heart attack and stroke have seen 'some of the largest and most rapid falls of any western European country, partly due to improvements in treatment as well as reductions in smoking and other risk factors'.
The UK also compares favourably with the US, recording an average life expectancy of 80 years in 2007, compared to just 78 years in the US.
This is despite the US spending more, per capita, on healthcare than any other country in the world.