London, Feb 10 : A new survey has revealed that teenage girls are increasingly living on junk food, thereby putting their long-term health at risk.

In addition, they are also smoking and drinking more than boys.

The findings from National Diet and Nutrition Survey revealed that the average teenage girl eats 54 grams of chips or fried potatoes every day while the average woman aged 19 to 65 eats just 40g.

Each day the teenager also eats 14g of crisps or other salty snacks, 22g of sweets and chocolate, and 37g of cakes and biscuits.

The consumption pattern also shows that many girls are being influenced by fashion models.

Although they aim to be slim, the study found that 37 per cent of teenage girls are overweight and 22 per cent are classified as obese.

However, among boys of the same age, 35 per cent are overweight but only 16 per cent are obese.

The findings also revealed that 11 per cent of girls aged 13 to 15 drank alcohol every week, compared with 1 per cent of boys the same age.

Moreover, 29 per cent of the young teenage girls said that they smoked cigarettes, compared with 16 per cent of boys.

"Broadly, teenage girls don't eat enough. Overall, they are a stand-alone group of the population whose diets are poor," The Times quoted Dr Alison Tedstone, head of nutrition research at the agency, as saying.

The research team also found that teenage girls and boys were eating too much sugar and saturated fat.