Peter Wu
9 Feb 2011
Measured
by the Body Mass Index (BMI), we are getting fatter. The cause? The spread of Western
fast food.
Of
itself, this is hardly news. What makes this report different
is that it quantifies just how fat people in different countries are and how
they rank in the fat table. Salient points are:
a.
USA – it has the biggest rise in BMI of all developed
nations, more than 1 kg a decade. What do you expect? All fast foods come in
ginormous proportions.
b.
Italy – it is slimming down, from 25.2 to 24.8 for women. I wonder if the
Mediterranean has something to do with it.
c.
Britain – Fattening up. The BIM for men and women is 27. One in four men and one
in three women is overweight.
d.
Chile – It has the un-enviable distinction of having the
biggest increase in BMI for men and women.
e.
Bangladesh – The thinnest. The average for women is
only 20.5 and 20.4 for men. Millions do not get
enough to eat while half the children are under-weight with stunted growth.
f.
Nauru – it is the world’s fattest country, with an average
BMI of 34-35. When the most
popular dish is fried chicken and coke, it says it all. I suspect other Pacific island countries
are in the same boat, like Tonga (Tongans are naturally big-framed) and Samoa. Their diet consists mainly of Taro
(yam), lamb flaps, corned beef, coconut fish and of course fried chickens. Those living in NZ are
walking heart-attack and diabetic time-bombs.
Interesting
China does not feature in this study. While its BMI may be
low, I somehow think that on a percentage change basis, it may have gone up by
leaps and bounds in the past 10 years or so. We may be seeing another ‘Great Leap
Forward’ in obesity in China, quietly.
In
the recent World Economic Conference in Davos in Switzerland, the economists
are saying that the next man-made Tsunami to hit the world is food price
increases. Why? Because as we get more affluent, we eat
more, we eat better and we eat more often. Demands are beginning to outstrip
supplies. The
weird weather we have had in recent past is certainly not conducive to crop
productivity. Neither is the conversion of arable land for food to bio-fuel
crop.
Do
a BMI yourself by going to the web so you know where you stand. It’s quick and dirty but you get the
drift.