Former supermodel Twiggy is disgusted by the U.K.'s growing obesity epidemic, insisting her fellow Brits need to ditch junk food and sugary drinks.

The star, real name Lesley Lawson, had a meteoric rise in the 1960s and earned her famous nickname because of her waif-like frame and stick-thin limbs.

Lawson believes the accessibility of fast food is to blame for expanding waistlines in her native country, and she is urging Brits to improve their dietary habits.

She tells Britain's Daily Mail newspaper, "I feel strongly that you are what you eat and I do think the obesity problem is a tragedy. They say that what happens in America comes here ten years later, and it has. I think it's a lot to do with fast food and how easy it is to buy it.

"I know people have financial problems sometimes but if one can buy good food and cook it they'll find it doesn't always cost more. But it's whether people have got the inclination or the time. It's so much easier to buy rubbish. I find that really upsetting actually.

"The worst thing is fizzy drinks. You see kids walking along the street glugging them down. I watched a programme the other night and they were showing four-year-olds with their teeth falling out. We didn't grow up with that."