He was the apple of his grandparents’ eye, but under their loving care and continual feeding, ten-year-old Daniel reached 100kg (15st 10lb) in weight.

Fearing for the boy’s health, social workers in the northern Spanish region of Asturias stepped in, taking him to a hospital where he has been put on a diet.

The boy’s grandparents, Con-suelo GarcÍa and José Sánchez – who saw their daughter die of anorexia – have been distraught, unable to comprehend why their youngest grandchild has been taken away. “He was kidnapped by social workers,” said a tearful Ms GarcÍa. “Yes, he was a bit chubby, but he was never ill. That boy was fit as a fiddle.”

Social workers claim that Daniel had trouble moving normally and tired easily. “He could hardly do any physical exercise because of his enormous weight,” said Gloria Fern-ández, the head of the Asturia’s child services.m Health officials speculated that Daniel’s grandparents had begun to lavish food on him after his mother died from anorexia several years ago. Ms Fernandez said that for two years social workers repeatedly asked the grandparents to stop overfeeding the boy. In the end they took Daniel into protective custody, and say that he has now lost more than 20kg. Doctors believe that Daniel’s obesity was purely due to overeating and say that he should weigh no more than 45kg (7st 2lb) at his age.

Daniel has been in care since May, but the case came to light only this week. It is believed to be the first of its kind in Spain, and recalls that of the eight-year-old British boy, Connor McCreaddie. Social workers debated whether to take Connor from his mother after he reached 218lb, nearly four times the healthy weight for a child of his age. Five weeks ago, his mother was allowed to keep her son after striking a deal with social workers to safeguard his welfare.

Mediterranean cultures like Spain, long admired for their healthy diets, have not been immune to the global trend toward expanding waistlines. According to the World Health Organisation, nearly 52 per cent of adult Spaniards are overweight, a big rise in recent years but still some way from Britain and the US, where 64 per cent and 74 per cent are overweight respectively.

In Spain, the problem is growing even faster among children. More than 16 per cent of those aged between 6 and 12 are considered obese, three times the proportion 20 years ago.

Alarmed by the growing health problems associated with obesity, the Socialist Government has launched a campaign against junk food. It has clashed repeatedly with Burger King, asking the fast-food chain to remove advertisements for its Big King XXL, which contains 1,000 calories. Burger King has refused, calling it an infringement of its customers’ rights.

Grandparents everywhere may be known for spoiling their grandchildren. But Spanish psychologists said that Daniel’s grandparents come from a generation that experienced terrible food shortages after the civil war, which ended in 1939. “For them, a chubby child is a healthy child, and the more he eats the better,” a health official said.

Asturian health authorities say that it would be best for the boy, now 11, to go home to his grandparents. But they say the grandparent remain “in denial” that their feeding habits are a problem – health officials said that they even tried to smuggle chocolate biscuits to him during their weekly visits. “The problem is that the grandparents still don’t understand that they were harming the lad and seriously placing his life and future at risk,” Ms Fernández said.

“The boy should be with his family,” said Ms GarcÍa, who is planning to sue the local authority. “I have cared for him since he was three years old, so they had better not try to keep him.”

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