Thailand Launches "no Belly For Thais" Campaigns

[george]

Thailand launches "No belly for Thais" campaigns

BANGKOK: -- Thailand's Public Health Ministry in cooperation with other eight organisations has launched 'No Belly' campaigns after Thailand ranked fifth among the Asia-Pacific countries where the citizenry is defined as being overweight.

"Globally, more than one billion adults are overweight, and at least 300 million are clinically obese. In the next eight years, the number of overweight people will increase up to 1,500 million," according to Dr. Narongsakdi Aungkasuvapala, director-general of Thailand's Department of Health.

In a 2004 study of obesity in Asia Pacific region, Thailand also ranked fifth among the countries with the most obese population, following Australia, Mongolia, Vanuatu and Hong Kong.", Dr. Narongsakdi stated.

Dr. Narongsakdi expressed concern ten million Thais are obese. Among them are middle-aged women and urban residents. In the last five years, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes patients have doubled, while those suffering from cancers have increased by 1.5 times, a result of the growing trend of overweight men, women, and children.

Therefore, he said, some eight well-known public and private agencies concerned with obesity have launched campaigns with the Public Health Ministry to encourage their employees to reduce their fat stomachs and related fat-conditions for their good health and efficiency of work.

Organisations interested in joining the campaign can browse to www.raipoong.com for more information.

The prevalence of being overweight and obese is assessed by using body mass index (BMI). The weight in kilogrammes is divided by the square of the height in metres (kg/m2).

Persons with a BMI over 25 kg/m2 are defined as overweight, and a BMI over 30 kg/m2 are considered obese.

--TNA 2007-10-09

[taxexile]

calculate your bmi here

[Martin]

According to that formula, I am well undertall.

[ColPyat]

calculate your bmi here

That's one of these rubbish calculators - it doesn't take body build and bone structure into account.

[lazeeboy]

calculate your bmi here

That's one of these rubbish calculators - it doesn't take body build and bone structure into account.

24.46 no risk ,according to the doctors im over weight by 14 lbs ..........

[Tony Clifton]

And I am at my perfect weight, if I was 8 feet tall.

[gjones]

I wonder if McDonalds, KFC etc and the over sugary drinks has anything to do it.

Time to start a belly dancing school and grab millions of the rich urbanites, I think.

[mouse]

It is the glucose and preservatives that are being added to the foods that are causing this problem.

Yes sugar in the diet does not help but, when will they realize that colonization has many faces i.e. Coke, Pepeso, Snickers, Peanut Butter, Doughnuts, Jellies, varied Breakfast cereals and all the other trash that the large corporations manage to import to Thailand.

[Pattaya46]

calculate your bmi here

How can man use such a tool ?

I can't believe that units like feet, inches or pounds or yet used in the 21th century

DO Americans ignore what are International Units that everyone should use ?

http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/sipm.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SI

Pattaya46

[cclub75]

Yes sugar in the diet does not help but, when will they realize that colonization has many faces i.e. Coke, Pepeso, Snickers, Peanut Butter, Doughnuts, Jellies, varied Breakfast cereals and all the other trash that the large corporations manage to import to Thailand.

Well... there is little difference, as for the "colonization".

Regarding food and drink... they choose the western crap. And the local ones too (don't forget CP group).

That's by the way, the beauty of this mechanism. Nobody force thai people to go to KFC to eat plastic chicken, to drink sodas all day long, and to eat all the crap produced locally (snacks, chips, sweets etc.), along with radioactives pizzas (Hut or Company) and ice creams (Swensen) full of fat.

My point : no sympathy.

[ercorn]

calculate your bmi here

How can man use such a tool ?

I can't believe that units like feet, inches or pounds or yet used in the 21th century

DO Americans ignore what are International Units that everyone should use ?

http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/sipm.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SI

Pattaya46

Agreed.

Edited October 10, 2007 by ercorn

[Martin]

".....Nobody force thai people to go to KFC...."

Agreed. But there is a huge industry thinking hard and trying to sucker Joe Soap, missus and kids into doing so. It is the advertising industry.

And when schools and colleges make the smallest attempt to give youngsters some warning of the exploiters who are trying to entrap them, they get howls of protest that "Media Studies isn't proper education".

I am fortunate that I am so old that my parents saw the beginning of such advertising spreads, discussed what they felt about them, and brought up their children to know that they felt that it was a manifestation of actions of exploitive 'downtreaders of the downtrodden'.

[astral]

I hope the fat politicians and policemen will be leading the parade,

to show all the rest what can be done.

[astral]

calculate your bmi here

That's one of these rubbish calculators - it doesn't take body build and bone structure into account.

Those are excuses used by the obese, who will not admit the fact!!

The bands in each range, do take these factors into account.

Has anyone got a version in real measurements??

[taxexile]

real measurements Edited October 10, 2007 by taxexile

[Old Man River]

calculate your bmi here

That's one of these rubbish calculators - it doesn't take body build and bone structure into account.

Those are excuses used by the obese, who will not admit the fact!!

The bands in each range, do take these factors into account.

Has anyone got a version in real measurements??

In "real" measurements is the result any different?

[sjaak327]

My BMI is 19, so that's fine, overweight is a problem globally. Supersize me is a real eyeopener regarding this subject.

[chiang mai]

calculate your bmi here

That's one of these rubbish calculators - it doesn't take body build and bone structure into account.

Those are excuses used by the obese, who will not admit the fact!!

The bands in each range, do take these factors into account.

Has anyone got a version in real measurements??

The British Medical profession announced earlier this year that the BMI was not an effective or useful method of guaging a persons health because of the many variables involved and I quote:

"The panel also believes that Body Mass Index (BMI) is not an accurate measure on health, “We have considered this carefully and listened to a range of expert views. But we do not believe a focus on BMI provides the way forward,” the report said.

Taken in isolation the BMI is meaningless and is often misleading and that is certainly true in my case. I would therefore suggest no one get too hung up about their individual results unless it is viewed in the context as part of a more complete medical assessment.

[taxexile]

Body Mass Index Misleading Indicator Of Health

Featured Article

Main Category: Obesity / Weight Loss / Fitness News

Article Date: 18 Aug 2006 - 13:00 PDT

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Measuring somebody's Body Mass Index (BMI) is commonly used to decide whether that person is overweight. It is often used as an indicator of cardiovascular disease risk. However, BMI may not be such an accurate indicator as it lumps muscle and fat into one category, say researchers from the Mayo Clinic.

There are two ways you can calculate your BMI:

1. Metric system - Kilograms and Metres

[Your weight] divided by [Your height squared]

2. Imperial System - Pounds and Inches

[You weight] divided by [Your height squared] times 703

A person is healthy if his/her BMI is between 18.5 and 24.9.

The researchers looked at 40 studies involving 250,000 patients. Their analysis revealed that people with a BMI of 30-35 were at lower risk of cardiovascular disease than those whose BMI was below 20.

You can read about this study in the journal The Lancet, August 19 issue.

The team concluded "An explanation for the lack of a positive association with BMI and mortality in older ages is that, in older persons, BMI is a poor measure of body fat. The measurement of weight does not differentiate between fat and fat-free mass, and fat-free mass is progressively lost with increasing age." Most of fat-free mass consists of muscle.

Dr. Francisco Lopez-Jimenez, lead researcher, said he and his team had suspected BMI was not a good indicator for quite some time. Dr. Lopez-Jimenez added "We presented a report at an American Heart Association meeting a few months ago showing that BMI did not correlate with fat. A better way to distinguish between fat and muscle is to take a cross-sectional view of the abdomen, to focus on the waist-hip ratio."

A study carried out by researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine concluded, after analyzing data on 15,000 patients, that BMI was not a good indicator of health risks for elderly people. They also favoured a calculation which looked at hip-waist ratio.

Hip-waist ratio gives a much better idea about how much fat a person has in the abdomen area (abdominal adiposity). If you have a 'beer-gut' the hip-waist ratio calculation will spot it more accurately than using BMI.

The Mayo Clinic team did find that BMI is a good calculator of risk for people with a BMI over 35. Dr. Lopez-Jimenez said "The group of people with BMI of 35 or higher had a bad outcome. Patients with BMIs of 35 to 40 naively believe that they have a lot of muscle. In extreme cases, fat determines the measurement."

If BMI were the only calculation ever made, the whole of the English national rugby team would be classed as very-overweight to obese and at high risk of cardiovascular disease. The conclusion would have been similar for a fit, heavyweight boxer when he was at his peak. There is no way a professional boxer who is 1.88 metres tall (6ft 2 ins), weighing in at 104 kilograms (228 pounds) has the same cardiovascular disease risk as a sedentary man of same height and weight - they would both have a BMI of 29.42. However, their hip-waist ratio would be completely different.

Calculate you Hip-to-Waist Ratio

[chiang mai]

Thank you Taxexile, I thought I was going to be on my own on this one!

[chiang mai]

calculate your bmi here

How can man use such a tool ?

I can't believe that units like feet, inches or pounds or yet used in the 21th century

DO Americans ignore what are International Units that everyone should use ?

http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/sipm.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SI

Pattaya46

I think you'll find that countries such as the UK and the US are not particularly warm to the idea of changing over to the metric system entirely and that the EU recently recognized that Britain for one may never make the switch entirely. I personally view that as not an entirely bad thing since it allows for some measure of individuality and non-conformity. So really no reason why everyone "should use" if it doesn't fit.

[gregybn]

Most obesity has a very simplistic cause, regardless of how some people try to grasp at straws to justify their "problem" and their inability to deal with it.

The Laws of Thermodynamics state that in a "closed system" - aka the human body - energy in must equal energy out.

Thus, Calories in = Calories out... and you have a balanced system - and weight remains constant.

If Calories IN is more than Calories out... there is a gain in weight.

If Calories OUT is more than Calories in... there is a loss of weight.

So... all those weight-challenged folks have a choice (two in fact - better in combination)...

Eat less and exercise more.

Sorry folks... you may think the physical laws of the universe don't apply to you... but unfortunately, you cannot avoid basic thermodynamics when it comes to your weight.

[chiang mai]

Most obesity has a very simplistic cause, regardless of how some people try to grasp at straws to justify their "problem" and their inability to deal with it.

The Laws of Thermodynamics state that in a "closed system" - aka the human body - energy in must equal energy out.

Thus, Calories in = Calories out... and you have a balanced system - and weight remains constant.

If Calories IN is more than Calories out... there is a gain in weight.

If Calories OUT is more than Calories in... there is a loss of weight.

So... all those weight-challenged folks have a choice (two in fact - better in combination)...

Eat less and exercise more.

Sorry folks... you may think the physical laws of the universe don't apply to you... but unfortunately, you cannot avoid basic thermodynamics when it comes to your weight.

I would like to have this discussion with you again in say about 50 or 100 years when more is understood on the subject and current laws are proven to be absolutely correct. All my instincts and current (limited) knowledge lead me to believe the entire picture is yet to be painted.

[Maestro]

”...focus on the waist-hip ratio.”...

It is easier to focus on the waist-hip ratio if you’ve got a picture to go with it. See attached recent news article (which includes also some other parameters)

Is sucking in the tummy allowed when measuring it?

--

Maestro

The_Sun_20071004_health_parameters.pdf

[Maestro]

calculate your bmi here

Here is a calculator that lets you select your preferred unit of measurement:

http://www.intmed.mcw.edu/clincalc/body.html

And this calculator is for the waist-hip ratio:

http://www.healthcalculators.org/calculators/waist_hip.asp

--

Maestro

[Martin]

Well, the Sun's models may, but I sure ain't going to win any Nobelly Prize in the face of such competition.

[chownah]

22.42 and normal......I could gain 10 kilo and still be normal.....eat your heart out couch potatoes....I can eat all I want of everything I want.......being a farmer using a two wheel tractor and a hoe might not make you rich but it does seem to have some advantages!!!

Chownah

[Maestro]

...I sure ain't going to win any Nobelly Prize...

Now that you’ve mentioned it let’s have it, your BMI and WHR!

(No photo, please)

--

Maestro

[ColPyat]

calculate your bmi here

That's one of these rubbish calculators - it doesn't take body build and bone structure into account.

Those are excuses used by the obese, who will not admit the fact!!

The bands in each range, do take these factors into account.

Has anyone got a version in real measurements??

Sorry, but that just doesn't work. Some do have bigger bones, and are naturally built wider than others. I have a friend who is a bit taller than me, has about the same size tummy, but weights nearly 20 KG less than me. I get lots more exercise than my friend, am much fitter, but i am simply lot wider than he is. If my friend would weight the same as me he would be obese, but i am not, and if i would weight the same as my friend - i would look like a concentration camp victim.

None of those BMI on the internet do take these factors into account. This is just amateur BS.

[nidge]

calculate your bmi here

How can man use such a tool ?

I can't believe that units like feet, inches or pounds or yet used in the 21th century

DO Americans ignore what are International Units that everyone should use ?

http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/sipm.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SI

Pattaya46

I'm 24.1 so i guess i can visit kfc without dying.

Sorry to shock you pattaya46 but many places in the world still use imperial measurements. I am quite sure you will not find many Brits that know how heavy they are in kilogrammes or how tall they are in centimetres.

As for the rest of the world, i work in the oil industry in Saudi arabia and here we drill wells in feet, measure weight in pounds and calculate volumes using barrels or gallons. 21st century or not imerial measurements are not going anywhere!