Despite Britain's high obesity rates, millions of Britons may actually be malnourished, health authorities and nutrition experts say. While most malnourished people have an underlying medical condition, experts say the poor state of the average British diet - often high in fat, salt and calories, but low on essential vitamins and minerals - means there are increasing numbers of people with nutritional deficiencies who may otherwise appear normal. The Department of Health says at least 2 million Britons are likely to be malnourished. Many nutrition experts put the figure as high as 4 million, about 6 percent of Britain's population. 

According to hospital admissions figures collected by the Department of Health from the past decade, up to half of all in-patients had some symptoms of malnutrition and a quarter were recognized as being malnourished.  No statistics are collected on how many obese people may be malnourished, but doctors say they are seeing more malnourished patients in hospitals, including those who are overweight. According to government statistics, 22 percent of Britons are obese and 75 percent are overweight.

"You can't always tell if a person is malnourished with your eyes," said Dr. Marinos Elia, a professor of clinical nutrition and metabolism at Southampton University. "People may be eating too much food, but they may not be eating enough fruits and vegetables."  Dr. Alastair McKinlay, a gastroenterologist and chairman of a British malnutrition action group, put it bluntly: "There's a widely held misconception that if you're fat, you can't be malnourished."

Some experts even contend that the food rationing system implemented during World War II offered Britons more nutritious food than what they're eating today. From 1939 to 1945, Britons received books of coupons, which they traded in for limited quantities of foods including flour, milk, eggs, meat, and canned fruit. " Rationing was a huge success because it ensured that if you got your alloted amounts, you got a nutritionally reasonable diet," said Colin Waine,  " I'm not advocating a return to rationing, but it was a more balanced diet back then ". Despite the unlimited food supply in Britain today, Waine said people don't always make the right choices.  “"Under the rationing system, people got the right nutrients in the right amounts," he said. "That isn't always the case today."