YOUR
HEALTH and MEDIA
Obesity’s
new Big News twist
Obesity
became headline news in Canada again on November 21, 2014 when Canada’s “Nation
Newspaper”, the Globe and Mail, gave the topic centre stage on a section
cover and half-page inside.
What is
noteworthy is the following:
1. The
coverage was in the BUSINESS section (B1 and B12) and not the expected LIFE or
Science and Medicine areas.
2.
Consequently the focus was on MONEY and the costs of the pandemic: US$2 trillion dollars in medical and related
treatment costs which amount to 2.8% of global GDP.
3. A chart of
major social problems lists world-wide obesity ‘costs’ in 2012 at US$2 trillion
and 2.8% of global GDP, i.e., ONLY third
after smoking (US$2.1 trillion; 2.9% GDP) and war/terrorism/violence (US$2.1
trillion; 2.8% GDP). Alcoholism is
listed at #4 at US$1.4 trillion and 2.0% GDP and illiteracy next at US$1.3 trillion
and 1.7 % of GDP. Climate change and Air
pollution – if combined – would be US$1.9 trillion and 3.0 % of GDP in 2008.
4. A world
map which clusters countries by their 2008 percentage of obese people and also the
per capita GPD per country.
Consequently,
the G&M reporter sees obesity as a major drain on world finances in
developed, developing and under-developed lands and bemoans its economic
impact.
The data,
however, especially the cluster map, suggest that the obesity ‘mania’ is on
poor grounds and delusional!
Firstly, as
the chart mentioned in #3 above states, the list of “global social burden” is “SELECTED”
and distorts the overall reality because it has chosen to pick and choose
which issues to highlight.
So, the
number one killer on the planet -- malnutrition is missing from the list of “selected global social burdens”
chart, as are malaria and other killer and debilitating world ravaging diseases.
(Didn’t is strike you as odd that in the 21th century SMOKING is still listed
as the #1 social ‘burden’.)
As Wikipedia notes under “malnutrition”,
Mortality due to malnutrition accounted for 58 percent of the total
mortality in 2006: "In the world, approximately 62 million people, all
causes of death combined, die each year. One in twelve people worldwide is
malnourished and according to the Save the
Children 2012 report, one in four of the world’s children are
chronically malnourished.[37][38][dead link] In 2006, more than 36
million died of hunger or diseases due to deficiencies in micronutrients".[39] [my underlining]
Yes, approximately
58% of all deaths on the planet are still related to malnutrition!!!
To cite
further the World Hunger organization: (http://www.worldhunger.org/articles/Learn/world%20hunger%20facts%202002.htm)
The
United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that nearly 870
million people of the 7.1 billion people in the world, or one in eight, were
suffering from chronic undernourishment in 2010-2012. Almost all the hungry
people, 852 million, live in developing countries, representing 15 percent of
the population of developing counties. There are 16 million people
undernourished in developed countries (FAO 2012).
As indicated by their
chart below on wages and extreme poverty, starvation and low BMI scores
is rampant and affecting over 1 in 6 people on the planet!!!!
Region
|
% in $1.25 a day poverty
|
Population (millions)
|
Pop. in $1 a day poverty (millions)
|
East
Asia and Pacific
|
16.8
|
1,884
|
316
|
Latin
America and the Caribbean
|
8.2
|
550
|
45
|
South
Asia
|
40.4
|
1,476
|
596
|
Sub-Saharan
Africa
|
50.9
|
763
|
388
|
Total Developing countries
|
28,8
|
4673
|
1345
|
Europe
and Central Asia
|
0.04
|
473
|
17
|
Middle
East and North Africa
|
0.04
|
305
|
11
|
Total
|
5451
|
1372
|
Source:
See World Bank PovcalNet "Replicate the World Bank's Regional Aggregation"
at
Secondly,
the cluster map. (NOTE: below percentages are approximates as the
map only gives 5% differential bar lines.)
With the exceptions of Hong Kong, South Korea
and Japan (with obesity rates between 5%-13% of the population, the other countries
with similarly low obesity rates are notorious for subsistence rural living, poverty
and malnutrition affecting multi-millions of people: India (2%), Indonesia
(5%), China (6%) and Thailand (9%). (Just
see the above chart from World Hunger!!!)
Why, all of
a sudden Malaysia, at 14%, has TRIPLE the obesity rate of its nearby ‘twin’,
Indonesia, is unexplained and raises issues as to the reliability of the data.
Brazil’s
population is at 18% obese, Colombia’s at 17% and Venezuela at whopping 31%!!!! Yet all 3 are neighbouring countries and do
not have a MacDonalds or Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet on almost every city and
town corner as in the U.S.A. or Canada. So why so high on traditional diets –
especially Venezuela?
Mexico, the
only other Latino country recorded, is at an even higher 33% obese. Again, are classic tortillas and the
traditional Mexican diet bad?
The only
African state is South Africa at an unbelievable 32% and the only recorded Arab
state, Saudi Arabia is at a mind boggling 33%!!! Again, these are not fast food havens and
something else must be at work for these astronomical figures for obesity.
Europe -- from Britain through Russia -- ranges from about 17% (Switzerland)
through Greece and Italy (the homes of the Mediterranean diet no less) at
around 20% ,and Britain , Spain, Germany, Poland and Russia all have around 25-26%
of their entire populations as obese. So,
1 in 4 Brits, Spaniards,
Germans, Poles and Russians – male and female -- is so fat that they should resemble bowling pins or outright
bowling balls! Is that reality?
As for Canada, we are 25% obese as well while the
U.S.A. matches Saudi Arabia at 33% -- to TIE as WORLD LEADERS!!!!.
To give some
detail on Canada, here is Statistics Canada 2012 report: [http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/82-625-x/2012001/article/11708-eng.htm]
In 2009 to 2011, 67% of Canadian men and 54% of Canadian women aged 18 to
79 were overweight or obese based on results from the Canadian Health
Measures Survey... Men were
significantly more likely to be overweight or obese than women. While
approximately 3 out of 10 Canadian
men had normal body weight, almost 7 out of 10 were overweight or obese. Among women, more
than 4 out of 10 had a normal weight while more than 5 out of 10 were
overweight or obese. (my bold emphasis).
Of course, StatsCan
is using the BMI measure as used by the World Health Organization and other
data collecting/analysis groups. And as
I have argued many times before, it is a very flawed measurement scale.
It distorts what is ‘healthy’ and ‘normal’,
targeting a very low body fat level as the ideal; unfairly lowering the
bar too low compared to real world weights and cultural body image ideals.
When ‘data’
tells you the overwhelming majority of males and females in a country are
overweight or obese, question the measurement standard and its assumptions;
don’t target what real people are like and label them ‘abnormal’!
Don’t
forget, only the modern West has ever idolized thin women: first as the 1920s
flappers and thereafter in the Twiggy and subsequent fixation on the pre-pubescent
female body shape and image of the catwalk!
As well, any
NFL running back at 5’10’ and even just 215 lbs is calculated by the BMI
as OBESE! (See BMI calculator at http://www.calcbmi.com/). Brett Farr, the
great quarterback, at 6’2” and in game condition weighing 222 lbs scores on the
BMI as OVERWEIGHT and just below obese!!
Peyton Manning, in his on-field prime, at 6’5” and 230 lbs, is a BMI of
27.27 and OVERWEIGHT!!!
So, to Brian
Milner, reporter, the Globe and Mail, the McKinsey Global Institute, and
WHO and related UN organizations I say: “You need to do a quick ‘reality check’.”
If billions of
dollars are being spent seeing doctors and dieting and taking medication and
classes and therapy for excess weight because of a flawed ideal and BMI, maybe
the media should challenge the accepted dogma.
Normally, people
are only thin and have low body fat when continually hungry and somewhat
or extremely malnourished!
And as more
and more people rise from poverty, expect BMI overweight and obese numbers to
rise – irrespective of the presence or absence of MacDonalds and Kentucky Fried
Chicken, because eating regularly on even traditional food items adds
weight.
And body fat,
that emergency cushion against famine and drought and plague, automatically
comes with eating.
That is
nature’s law.
