IS IT YOUR WEIGHT OR YOUR WAIST?
IT’S YOUR WAIST AND I WILL EXPLAIN WHY
The Japanese Government has told its citizens that they must control their waist line.
Here is that story:
Japan, Seeking Trim Waists, Measures Millions
AMAGASAKI, Japan – Japan, a country not known for its overweight people, has undertaken one of the most ambitious campaigns ever by a nation to slim down its citizenry.
A poster at a public health clinic in Japan reads, “Goodbye, metabo,” a word associated with being overweight. The Japanese government is mounting an ambitious weight-loss campaign.
Slimming Japan
Summoned by the city of Amagasaki one recent morning, Minoru Nogiri, 45, a flower shop owner, found himself lining up to have his waistline measured. With no visible paunch, he seemed to run little risk of being classified as overweight, or metabo, the preferred word in Japan these days.
But because the new state-prescribed limit for male waistlines is a strict 33.5 inches, he had anxiously measured himself at home a couple of days earlier. “I’m on the border,” he said.
Under a national law that came into effect two months ago, companies and local governments must now measure the waistlines of Japanese people between the ages of 40 and 74 as part of their annual checkups. That represents more than 56 million waistlines, or about 44 percent of the entire population.
Those exceeding government limits — 33.5 inches for men and 35.4 inches for women, which are identical to thresholds established in 2005 for Japan by the International Diabetes Federation as an easy guideline for identifying health risks — and having a weight-related ailment will be given dieting guidance if after three months they do not lose weight. If necessary, those people will be steered toward further re-education after six more months.
To reach its goals of shrinking the overweight population by 10 percent over the next four years and 25 percent over the next seven years, the government will impose financial penalties on companies and local governments that fail to meet specific targets. The country’s Ministry of Health argues that the campaign will keep the spread of diseases like diabetes and strokes in check.
The ministry also says that curbing widening waistlines will rein in a rapidly aging society’s ballooning health care costs, one of the most serious and politically delicate problems facing Japan today. Most Japanese are covered under public health care or through their work.
Anger over a plan that would make those 75 and older pay more for health care brought a parliamentary censure motion Wednesday against Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, the first against a prime minister in the country’s postwar history.”
The Japanese government is deep in debt. It doesn’t want additional health care costs.
WHY IS THE WAIST SO IMPORTANT?
As I described in my article Visceral Fat the fat around the intestines produces all those damaging fat molecules called “Triglycerides” and “Low Density Lipoproteins.”
These are the bad molecules that adhere to the inner walls of the arteries (the Intima) and cause heart disease, stroke and diabetes. The quickest way to eliminate these fat deposits is through exercise.
WHAT IF I CAN’T EXERCISE? (I HAVE A SORE TOE)
If you cannot exercise, due to illness or lack of desire (the most common cause) you have another way out.
WHAT IS THE MAGIC WAY OUT?
It is very simple: DON’T EAT! Animals (and humans) who don’t eat, for whatever reason, undergo a state called “Caloric Restriction.” They are healthier and live longer than their peers who eat. It may not be pleasant, but it is the only other way of lowering your waistline.
Either exercise or starve. Do not click on those silly ads that tell you how to lose a pound a day. The only thing you will lose is your hard earned money.
