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You may soon be fired for being fat.

  • Spence Cooper
  • November 19, 2009
Sumo Wrestlers
Wonder if Sumo Wrestlers will Be Affected by the Law

If you’re 40 or over and your waist line exceeds 33.5 inches, you’ve broken the law in Japan. In April 2008, the Japanese government passed legislation requiring all citizens over the age of 40 to have their waists measured annually. If a man’s waist is more than 33.5 inches and a woman’s more than 35.5 inches, they’re outlaws, referred to counseling and close government supervision, and placed on a government-regulated diet.

In Japan they call it the “metabolic syndrome”, or “metabo law,”for short; the term refers to a combination of health risks — stomach flab, high blood pressure and high cholesterol — all leading to cardiovascular disease and diabetes. “Nobody will want to be singled out as metabo,”Kimiko Shigeno, a company nurse, said of the campaign. “It’ll have the same effect as non-smoking campaigns where smokers are now looked at disapprovingly”

Japanese companies are penalized with fines if they don’t reduce the number of overweight employees. At Matsushita, which makes Panasonic products, the new law requires the company to measure the waistlines of not only its employees but also of their families and retirees, and they must get 10 percent of those deemed metabolic to lose weight by 2012, and 25 percent of them to lose weight by 2015.

Will this educate or will it be ignored?
Will this educate or will it be ignored?

Last August, the Health Department in New York City began a public-awareness campaign by displaying posters in the subway system warning of the health hazards of sweetened drinks. “Are you pouring on the pounds?” asks the ad which is accompanied by an image of a bottle of soda that when poured turns to a glob of fat as it reaches the glass. “Don’t drink yourself fat,” warns the ad. “Cut back on soda and other sugary beverages. Go with water, seltzer, or low-fat milk instead.”

Forty U.S. states already have small taxes on sugared beverages and snack foods. Last summer, Maine and New York proposed large taxes on sugared beverages, and similar discussions have begun in other states. To help fund Obama’s plan to overhaul healthcare, Congress is now considering passing a federal excise tax on soda. Denmark is one of five EU countries that have soda taxes, but in 2010, Denmark may also impose an “unhealthy food tax” that would tax chocolate, sodas, sweets and ice cream.

In 2008, New York City’s board of health banned trans fats in restaurants. “We know trans fats increase the chance for heart attack, stroke and death, and they don’t have to be there,” said health commissioner Thomas Frieden. “The rules are going to make New Yorkers live longer and healthier lives,” he says. The board also voted to require restaurants to post calorie information on menus and menu boards. Many other areas across the country have followed NYC’s lead including the state of California, King County, Washington, Multnomah County, Oregon, Philadelphia, Westchester County, New York, and Suffolk County, New York.

In many cases, an individual’s adult weight is determined not by diet but by genetic predisposition — two different people can consume and expend the same amount of calories, but one will always be heavier than the other. Nita J. Kulkarni, a freelance journalist and writer, who lives in India, has assembled some interesting data on weight gain and obesity worldwide. “Men and women are different when it comes to gaining weight, and men have a physiological and biological advantage when it comes to losing it. Statistics from the WHO (World Heath Organization) show that more women of the world are obese, but interestingly, when it comes to just being overweight, more men are so.”

Things are even worst now
Things are even worst now

Here’s a quick glance at some figures:

India
Men: 16.8% overweight and 1.1% obese.
Women: 15.2% are overweight and 1.4% are obese.

United Kingdom
Men: 65.7% are overweight and 21.6% are obese.
Women: 61.9% are overweight and 24.2% are obese.

United States
Men: 75% are overweight and 36.5% are obese.
Women: 72.6% are overweight and 41.8% are obese.

Sweden
Men: 54.5% are overweight and 11.8% are obese.
Women: 44.9% are overweight and 11% are obese.

United Arab Emirates
Men: 66.9% are overweight and 24.5% are obese.
Women: 69.7% are overweight and 39.4% are obese.

France
Men: 45.6% are overweight and 7.8% are obese.
Women: 34.7% are overweight and 6.6% are obese.

Germany
Men: 65.1 % are overweight and 21% are obese.
Women: 55.1% are overweight and 20.4% are obese.

Italy
Men: 52.7% are overweight and 12.9% are obese.
Women: 38.3% are overweight and 12.6% are obese,

Egypt
Men: 64.5% are overweight and 22% are obese.
Women: 74.2% are overweight and 45.5% are obese.

Nigeria
Men: 21.9% are overweight and 2% are obese.
Women: 32.2% are overweight and 6% are obese.

Japan
Men: 27% of Japanese men are overweight and 1.8% are obese.
Women: 18.15 of the women are overweight and 1.5% are obese.

China
Men: 33.1% are overweight and 1.6% are obese.
Women: 24.7% of the women are overweight and 1.9% are obese.

Another contentious health issue is smoking. Smoking bans in the work place and in public places are effect in many states across the nation. Currently in the U.S, 27 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have enacted smoke-free laws that include restaurants and bars. Research conducted at the University of Maryland suggests workplace bans reduce smoking prevalence by 5 percent and average daily consumption among smokers by 10 percent. Several studies have documented health and economic benefits related to smoking bans, with a significant decrease in heart attacks; however, “In May 2008, research published by Adams and Cotti in the Journal of Public Economics examined statistics of drunken-driving fatalities and accidents in areas where smoking bans in bars have been implemented and found that fatal drunken-driving accidents increased by about 13 percent….” While most developed countries have enacted bans on smoking in public places or workplaces, in developing countries, smoking bans are unheard of or not enforced.

All these fines, restrictions, taxes, and warnings related to the reduction of health risks are designed to reduce the costs of governments and private sector medical expenditures under the guise of forced preventative measures. But if governments were truly interested in the health of their populations, why not ban the offensive products they deem health risks altogether, or at least ban advertising them instead of penalizing consumers and businesses by imposing taxes? These taxes are nothing but government extortion. And the association between drug manufacturers and the chemical industry clearly illustrates that the same people pumping out high fructose corn syrup linked to obesity and diabetes are also indirectly in the business of supplying insulin.

The solution lies in intensive nutrition and health education. Campaigns like the NYC Pouring on the Pounds campaign are a good start. Why not  include the amount of time that it will take an average person to burn that burger off on the threadmill on nutritional labels?

This is a controversial subject that affects everyone, what are your thoughts on it?

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