Amagasaki - A few days ago, Minoru Nogiri, a florist for 45 years, was summoned by the city of Amagasaki and ended up in a row waiting to be measuring the waist. Not having a little belly, he seemed to run little risk of being classified as overweight, or metabo, the preferred word in vogue these days in Japan. But since the new limit set by the government for the waistlines of males is 85.09 cm disk, a couple of days before, at home, Mr. Nogiri was measured with a certain apprehension. "I'm at the limit," he said.
Japan, a country whose inhabitants are generally not considered in the obese, is promoting one of the most ambitious campaigns ever undertaken by a nation to convince its citizens to lose weight. According to state law came into force two months ago, in the exams to do for the annual checkup, businesses and local governments must measure the waistlines of Japanese people between 40 and 74. That represents more than 56 million waistlines, or about 44% of the population.
Who exceed the limits specified by the government (85.09 cm for men and 90 for women) and whose weight gain is connected to some dietary advice will be provided if after three months have not lost weight. If necessary, after six months, those people will be subject to additional controls. To achieve the goal of shrinking the overweight population by 10% within the next four years and 25% within the next week, the government has also provided for fines to be imposed on those companies and local governments that fail to achieve their goals. The Minister of Health believes that this campaign will help to contain the spread of diseases such as diabetes and heart attack.
I opposed the measure argue that the government guidelines - especially those on the waistline of men - they are too strict and that more than half of the males in this way will be considered overweight. The result, they argue, is to encourage the use of unnecessary medical treatments in order to lose weight and, ultimately, to increase expenditure on medical care. Yoichi Ogushi, a professor at Tokai University School of Medicine, dice che "non c'è affatto bisogno" che i giapponesi dimagriscano. "Non credo che questa campagna avrà alcun effetto positivo. Se una cosa del genere si facesse negli Stati Uniti si riscontrerebbero dei benefici, dal momento che molti americani pesano più di 100 chili", spiega Ogushi. "Ma i giapponesi sono talmente snelli da non potersi permettere di perdere peso".
Il professore è più severo con gli americani di essi meritino. Un'indagine effettuata dal National Center for Health Statistics ha stabilito che la circonferenza addominale media dei maschi caucasici americani è di 99 centimetri, ben 2,54 centimetri meno della soglia dei 101,6 indicati dalla Federazione Internazionale del Diabete. Le donne americane not fare as well, with an average waist circumference of 92.71 centimeters, about 5 inches above the threshold set for them, 87, 88 cm. The differences in thresholds reflected variations in height and body type from Japanese men and women.
In comparison, the data referring to the Japanese are sketchy, but a search performed on a sample of 1998 male employees showed an average waist circumference of 78.20 cm. But this measure contained apparently was not enough to assuage the concerns of the Japanese health bureaucrats. For
Amagasaki, western Japan city, the authorities have given immediately to be done to measure the waistlines of citizens by implementing an initiative that the Government has established a "special checkup." The municipality must be at least 65 percent of people between 40 and 74 years covered by health care nationwide and a target "extremely difficult," acknowledges Midori Noguchi, a municipal official.
When it came his turn, Nogiri, the florist, entered into a cab, he took off his shirt and showed a flat abdomen and without visible traces of love handles. A nurse handed him a meter around the waist at the umbilicus, and took the initiative: 85.344 cm, a few millimeters above the limit. "Deleted" said Mr. Nogiri with an air of disappointment.
The campaign started a couple of years ago, when the Minister of Health began to speak insistently of a medical condition that few Japanese had heard of the metabolic syndrome, a set of factors that increase the risk of developing vascular disease and diabetes. Among these factors are abdominal obesity, high blood pressure and high levels of glucose and cholesterol. In no time at all, this disease has been shortened by the ominous name funny in a "metabolic" and has become synonymous with overweight.
The mayor of a city in Mie prefecture, was thrilled to anti-obesity campaign al punto tale che assieme ai primi cittadini di altre sei città ha dato vita ad un gruppo chiamato "I Sette Samurai Metabo". Quella campagna, però, si è conclusa improvvisamente quando un attivista di 47 anni, con 99 centimetri di giro-vita, è morto di infarto facendo jogging. E tuttavia, in una palestra di Amagasaki, decine di cittadini - pochi dei quali sembravano sovrappeso - ballano al ritmo della canzone anti-metabo che mette in guardia contro i bottoni dei pantaloni che saltano e rotolano via: "Pyun-pyun-pyun! Addio metabolica. Facciamo insieme il checkup. Dai! Dai! Dai! Non aspettare di ammalarti! No! No! No!"
Fonte: Repubblica.it
0 comments:
Post a Comment