October 14/London/Associated Press -- British health officials say the country needs to slash 5 billion calories from its collective daily diet to slow the obesity epidemic.

In a report, the department of health said most adults in the nation of about 60 million people are already eating far more than they need. The average Briton eats about 10% more calories than necessary, the report said.

The U.K. has one of Europe's fattest populations: more than 60% of adults are overweight or obese. The new report aims to change diet and exercise habits enough so that the number of heavy Britons begins to fall by 2020.