Women's average shoe size has gone up from a 5 to a 6 in the past five years

The Telegraph reports that women's feet are getting bigger and that in the last 5 years women's average shoe size has risen from 5 to 6. This is being attributed to the 'obesity epidemic'.

My personal experience is that my shoe size used to be a very narrow 5½ and it is now a wide 7½. This is not, of course, because my feet have grown; it is because they have become very swollen: swollen with the fluid retention that has resulted from my being inappropriately prescribed HRT years ago and negligently not warned to avoid eating salt and salty food while taking those tablets. The fluid retention is easy to see because it shows itself in the grossly distended, intensely painful and extremely delicate veins that disfigure my feet, making them blue/purple, rather than the white they were formerly.

If your feet have become swollen and your shoe size is now bigger, you can reduce the swelling and the pain/aching considerably by avoiding salt and salty food. As well as improving the state of your feet, avoiding salt will benefit your health in many other ways too, including reducing your excess weight and lowering high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection