Cases of the painful inflammatory arthritis have leapt by 20 percent in three years, with 234,000 admitted to hospital in 2021/22. NHS Digital figures show it is linked to a significant rise in obesity, with more than one in four adults badly overweight.
Experts have blamed a “Deliveroo culture” of working from home and eating more snacks, takeaways and junk foods during Covid.
Gout causes sudden, severe joint pain, which often starts in the big toe.
Tam Fry, of the National Obesity Forum, said people today were eating and drinking Falstaff, Henry VIII and rich Victorians – who made gout infamous – “under the table”.
World health chiefs say the UK will be Europe’s fattest nation in 10 years.