Dame Sally Davies, 69, pictured, has claimed that women are eating 'two biscuits too much each day' while on Desert Island Discs

Britain's Chief Medical Officer has claimed that women are eating 'two biscuits too much each day' and that we need to be 'honest' about weight.

Dame Sally Davies, 69, also warned how obesity is connected to cancer and praised a Cancer Research UK campaign aiming to increase awareness of the link.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs the mother-of-two said: 'I do think we have to be honest about it and not pretend people aren't overweight or obese.

'What makes this happen is, on average, women eat one or two biscuits too much each day.

'So we need people to think about [eating] a little less every day so that they're stable and [eating] a little less than that every day to steadily drop [their weight]'.

Obesity will overtake smoking as the leading cause of cancer in women by 2043, reports the Sunday Times.

The chief medical officer, who has held her post for the past nine years, called Cancer Research UK's campaign 'wonderful'.

She said: 'At the moment we have a wonderful campaign from Cancer Research UK.

Britain's Chief Medical Officer said 'we need people to think about [eating] a little less every day so that they're stable' during her interview (file images)

Dame Sally praised Cancer Research UK for their campaign, posters pictured, which had faced critisism, for trying to raise awareness of the link between the disease and obesity

'Obesity causes cancer, just like smoking. It causes heart disease, diabetes, so much suffering for the families. We have to look at how we can help people not get obese.'

The campaign has been criticised for drawing a parallel between smoking and obesity, using images featuring a cigarette packet bearing the slogan 'obesity is a cause of cancer too'.

Asked if she felt sympathy for people who were 'hurt and upset' by the adverts, she said: 'I do, but we also need to understand that it has a big impact on their health and on their mental health.

'So we need much better weight management services for people, easier to access in the community, which are not shaming, which say how do we help you do what you want to do.'

Dame Sally also revealed that she is 'immensely worried' that it is cheaper for people to eat unhealthy foods.

She told Desert Island Discs there needs to be an environment where it is 'easy to take the healthy option', which means not displaying chocolate and sweets at shop checkouts.

Asked about it being cheaper for people to buy unhealthy food she said: 'That worries me immensely.

'The poorer you are the higher the density of fast food outlets which don't have healthy food.

The Chief Medical Officer, pictured with Lauren Laverne, also spoke about junior doctors on Desert Island Discs and revealed that she believes we need to find more 'humanity for out staff'

'We have to make sure that poor people can afford a healthy grocery basket - and that means low in fat, low in calories, low in salt and that is not easy at the moment.'

Dame Sally also told presenter Lauren Laverne that junior doctors are working 'very heavy hours' and not getting enough pastoral or physical support.

Asked what she thought about the support and training offered to junior doctors, Dame Sally said: 'I am not happy about it now.

'Because of the shift system we have made it so we have young doctors working very heavy hours and the pastoral support and the physical support has been taken out.

'So they may be well trained but the pastoral bit is generally, in England, not as I would want it.

'We have to find more humanity for our staff. If we want our doctors to have humanity with patients we have to show it, from the NHS, the hospitals, and general practice, to them.'

Dame Sally, who has been chief medical officer for nine years, will take up her new role as Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, in October.

Desert Island Discs is on BBC Sounds and BBC Radio 4 on Sunday at 11.15am.