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IronyTaken · 11-14-2009, 10:37 AM

Quote:

TOKYO, Japan — In Japan, being thin isn’t just the price you pay for fashion or social acceptance. It’s the law.

So before the fat police could throw her in pudgy purgatory, Miki Yabe, 39, a manager at a major transportation corporation, went on a crash diet last month. In the week before her company’s annual health check-up, Yabe ate 21 consecutive meals of vegetable soup and hit the gym for 30 minutes a day of running and swimming.

“It’s scary,” said Yabe, who is 5 feet 3 inches and 133 pounds. “I gained 2 kilos [4.5 pounds] this year.”

In Japan, already the slimmest industrialized nation, people are fighting fat to ward off dreaded metabolic syndrome and comply with a government-imposed waistline standard. Metabolic syndrome, known here simply as “metabo,” is a combination of health risks, including stomach flab, high blood pressure and high cholesterol, that can lead to cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

Concerned about rising rates of both in a graying nation, Japanese lawmakers last year set a maximum waistline size for anyone age 40 and older: 85 centimeters (33.5 inches) for men and 90 centimeters (35.4 inches) for women.

In the United States, the Senate and House health care reform bills have included the so-called “Safeway Amendment,” which would offer reductions in insurance premiums to people who lead fitter lives. The experience of the Japanese offers lessons in how complicated it is to legislate good health.

Though Japan’s “metabo law” aims to save money by heading off health risks related to obesity, there is no consensus that it will. Doctors and health experts have said the waistline limits conflict with the International Diabetes Federation’s recommended guidelines for Japan. Meantime, ordinary residents have been buying fitness equipment, joining gyms and popping herbal pills in an effort to lose weight, even though some doctors warn that they are already too thin to begin with.

The amount of “food calories which the Japanese intake is decreasing from 10 years ago,” said Yoichi Ogushi, professor of medicine at Tokai University and one of the leading critics of the law. “So there is no obesity problem as in the USA. To the contrary, there is a problem of leanness in young females.”

One thing’s certain: Most Japanese aren’t taking any chances.

Companies are offering discounted gym memberships and developing special diet plans for employees. Residents are buying new products touted as fighting metabo, including a $1,400 machine called the Joba that imitates a bucking bronco. The convenience store chain Lawson has opened healthier food stores called Natural Lawson, featuring fresh fruits and vegetables.

Under Japan’s health care coverage, companies administer check-ups to employees once a year. Those who fail to meet the waistline requirement must undergo counseling. If companies do not reduce the number of overweight employees by 10 percent by 2012 and 25 percent by 2015, they could be required to pay more money into a health care program for the elderly. An estimated 56 million Japanese will have their waists measured this year.

Though Japan has some of the world’s lowest rates of obesity — less than 5 percent, compared to nearly 35 percent for the United States — people here on average have gotten heavier in the past three decades, according to government statistics. More worrisome, in a nation that is aging faster than any other because of long life spans and low birth rates, the number of people with diabetes has risen from 6.9 million in 1997 to 8.9 million last year.

Health care costs here are projected to double by 2020 and represent 11.5 percent of gross domestic product. That’s why some health experts support the metabo law.

“Due to the check up, there is increased public awareness on the issue of obesity and metabolic syndrome,” said James Kondo, president of the Health Policy Institute Japan, an independent think tank. “Since fighting obesity is a habit underlined by heightened awareness, this is a good thing. The program is also revolutionary in that incentivizes [companies] to reduce obesity.”

Though the health exams for metabolic syndrome factor in blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar, weight and smoking, waist size is the most critical element in the Japanese law — and perhaps the most humiliating.

The hesitancy of some Japanese to expose their bare stomachs to the tape measure has led the government to allow the tape measures to be administered to clothed patients. Those who elect not to strip down are permitted to deduct 1.5 centimeters from their results.

The crudeness of the system has alarmed some doctors. Satoru Yamada, a doctor at Kitasato Institute Hospital in Tokyo, published a study two years ago in which several doctors measured the waist of the same person. Their results varied by as much as 7.8 centimeters.

“I cannot agree with waist size being the essential element,” Yamada said.

Perhaps more astounding, even before Japanese lawmakers set the waistline limits last year, the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) amended its recommended guidelines for the Japanese. The new IDF standard is 90 centimeters (35.4 inches) for men and 80 centimeters (31.5 inches) for women. But the Japanese government has yet to modify its limits.

On the day of her exam, Yabe arrived at the clinic at 8

0 in the morning. The battery of tests lasted an hour. The result: her waist was 84 centimeters — safely under the limit. She had shed 6.5 pounds thanks to her diet and exercise.

A week later, however, Yabe was back to eating pasta and other favorite foods.

“I want to keep healthy now, but I don’t know,” she said. “Maybe in December, I will have many bonenkai [year-end parties]. And next summer I will drink beer, almost every day.”

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/j...e-law?page=0,1

A country that is one of the least fat in population ratio is now making a law about it. I find that kind of odd.

I wonder if America should do the same.

hobolord · 11-14-2009, 10:52 AM

Well least it will motivate them to get of the couch.

jazneo · 11-14-2009, 10:55 AM

never happen American.

mazul · 11-14-2009, 10:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by IronyTaken

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/j...e-law?page=0,1

A country that is one of the least fat in population ratio is now making a law about it. I find that kind of odd.

I wonder if America should do the same.

No, no, they must have the FREEDOM to eat themselves into unhealthiness and become a burden for the health care.

jazneo · 11-14-2009, 11:35 AM

lol they have to get rid of sumo wrestling if there ban fat people

Candyholic · 11-14-2009, 11:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jazneo

lol they have to get rid of sumo wrestling if there ban fat people

A sumo wrestler and a fat person is not the same.

Bladin · 11-14-2009, 12:03 PM

I can see why people should be thin, but at least in america, obesity is a side effect of our lifestyle. Some people devote their entire life to being healthy, good for them. Two people can have the exact same diet, and similar physical activity, and could be completely different weights.

People eat unhealthy because we have less time to eat. Everyone wants to be healthy, sure some people make bad decisions regarding food. But when you haven't eaten all day, your driving around town, you have no food in the fridge. It's a lot easier to go to a fast food place, get something to eat, and eat it, then to go to a grocery store, buying ingrediants, going home, cooking a nice meal, and then eating.

Also try juggling working, raising kids, spending time with family, paying builds, home maintenance, having a social life... sometimes its cooking and food that suffers.

Deimos · 11-14-2009, 12:06 PM

this is one of those ideas which looks good in principle because it will bring so many benefits for alot of people: healthier lives, lower insurance premiums, less burden on welfare.... but seriously, as stupid as it sounds this IS the thin end of the wedge, will the future be like this:

YouTube Video

(fast forward to 4:20 if you cant be bothered to watch it all)

And to finish off, a quote from the movie in which local rebel leader Edgar Friendly tells John Spartan (stallone) what he thinks of Cocteau's (the local government minister) plan to make San Angeles a beacon of health, hope and happiness by outlawing everything thats bad for you:

"You see, according to Cocteau's plan I'm the enemy, 'cause I like to think; I like to read. I'm into freedom of speech and freedom of choice. I'm the kind of guy likes to sit in a greasy spoon and wonder - "Gee, should I have the T-bone steak or the jumbo rack of barbecued ribs with the side order of gravy fries?" I WANT high cholesterol. I wanna eat bacon and butter and BUCKETS of cheese, okay? I want to smoke a Cuban cigar the size of Cincinnati in the non-smoking section. I want to run through the streets naked with green Jell-o all over my body reading Playboy magazine. Why? Because I suddenly might feel the need to, okay, pal? I've SEEN the future. Do you know what it is? It's a 47-year-old virgin sitting around in his beige pajamas, drinking a banana-broccoli shake, singing "I'm an Oscar Meyer Wiener".

jazneo · 11-14-2009, 12:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Candyholic

A sumo wrestler and a fat person is not the same.

that pure fat lol

MoonStoneX · 11-14-2009, 03:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jazneo

that pure fat lol

Sumo wrestlers make a career in being fat and their a lot healthier than most fat people.

Fat people are just fat and unhealthy.

11-14-2009, 12:03 PM	#7 (permalink)
Bladin Moderator Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 185 Reputation: 10	I can see why people should be thin, but at least in america, obesity is a side effect of our lifestyle. Some people devote their entire life to being healthy, good for them. Two people can have the exact same diet, and similar physical activity, and could be completely different weights. People eat unhealthy because we have less time to eat. Everyone wants to be healthy, sure some people make bad decisions regarding food. But when you haven't eaten all day, your driving around town, you have no food in the fridge. It's a lot easier to go to a fast food place, get something to eat, and eat it, then to go to a grocery store, buying ingrediants, going home, cooking a nice meal, and then eating. Also try juggling working, raising kids, spending time with family, paying builds, home maintenance, having a social life... sometimes its cooking and food that suffers. __________________

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11-14-2009, 10:52 AM	#2 (permalink)
hobolord Roon's Rogue Join Date: May 2006 Location: australia Posts: 4,191 Reputation: 68	Well least it will motivate them to get of the couch.

11-14-2009, 10:55 AM	#3 (permalink)
jazneo Banned Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: USA, Wisconsin Posts: 1,184 Reputation: 26	never happen American.

11-14-2009, 11:35 AM	#5 (permalink)
jazneo Banned Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: USA, Wisconsin Posts: 1,184 Reputation: 26	lol they have to get rid of sumo wrestling if there ban fat people