调查：英国妇女成为'欧洲最肥'

choi

BBC Chinese, Nov 26, 2011.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/si ... women_fattest.shtml

Quote:

"这项由欧盟统计局所作的调查共研究了19个国家妇女的身高和体重比例，发现有23.9%的英国女性达到了肥胖水平。英国男性略微好一些，22%的男性属于肥胖。

"排在前三名的女性肥胖的国家分别是英国、马耳他和拉脱维亚。男性的前三名则为马耳他、英国和匈牙利。

Note:
(a) Body Mass Index (BMI): 25-30 overweight; >30 obese.
(b) The report is based on
Overweight and obesity - BMI statistics. Eurostat, European Commission, Nov 24, 2011
http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu ... ty_-_BMI_statistics

These are "women and men aged 18 years and over."

Women in UK not only lead in EU in obesity rate (23.9% of population) but in overweight PLUS obesity (~58%). Figure 1

Men in UK rank second in overweight plus obesity (~66%), after those in Malta (~70%). Figure 2

Another finding in this report: "The share of overweight and obese persons tends to fall with educational level. For women, the pattern is clear in all Member States available: the proportion of women who are obese or overweight falls as the educational level rises.


(2) But wait. The above report only looks into Europe. In fact, a day before another report showed AMERICANS are the fattest among developed nations.

Health: medical care improving but better prevention and management of chronic diseases needed to cut costs, says OECD. Nov 23, 2011.
http://www.oecd.org/document/3/0,3746,en_21571361_44315115_49048899_1_1_1_1,00.html

The figure with the heading "Rising obesity pushing up healthcare spending[;] % of obese among adults" indicated
US (44% of the population)> Mexico (40%)> New Zealand (37.5%)> Australia (36%)> UK (33%)--(South) Koreans are the thinnest among OECD nations (obesity rate 4%), followed by Japanese (slightly higher than 4%).

My comment:
(a) Take notice this OECD report talked about obesity only, never overweight. The report did not categorize men and women separately.
(b) Neither China nor Taiwan is a member of OECD, though per capita GDP of Taiwan is much higher than the latest member, Chile.
(c) In early 1980s, I jokingly told an American lady in Taiwan, who retired and resettled there, to enjoy the warm weather and teach English (so as to supplement her pension and social security), that I'd like to marry a Costa Rican woman, for I had heard that ration of women to men there was 3 to 1 (unlikely in retrospective). She cautioned against the idea: Women in Latin America ballooned in weight after marriage (she had normal BMI). Soon after I arrived in US, like other foreigners, I observed many Americans were huge, to put it politely. A Chinese old lady (in her late 50s to early 60s, I guess) wondered aloud how cops were so fat: "How can they outrun and catch anybody?"  This OECD report tells us Americans are even fatter than Latin Americans.