OPIYO OLOYA

PERSPECTIVE OF A UGANDAN IN CANADA

Stop right there, don’t drink that beer yet. Have you heard the latest news out of Japan? Well, Japanese are never known to do anything in half-measures.

In the olden days of samurai warriors, disgraced and defeated soldiers were expected to commit hara-kiri—ritual suicide by disembowelment whereby a man plunged a sword into his own stomach.

When Imperial Japan lost World War Two, it completed its own hara-kiri by disbanding the military, thereby launching a pacifist nation for whom warfare remains alien to this day. Instead, with its eyes firmly set on conquering the world through trade, Japan became the technological leader, creating most of the latest household appliances, toys and gizmos used the world over.

At the same time, Japanese automobiles became kings of the road everywhere. It therefore comes as little surprise that Japan is again setting the pace for personal health and wellness. According to an article in the New York Times (June 13), a new law requires Japanese citizens between the ages of 40 and 74 to undergo annual waistline measurement.

That is to say, every man and woman of a certain age must prepare to have the tape-measure wrapped around the waist to check on the bulges.

Those exceeding government prescribed waistline limits—33.5 inches for men and 35.4 inches for women—will have three months to lose weight or get the dreaded knock on the door from the waistline police (okay, I added my own salt and mchuzi mix on that last bit).

Seriously, though, after six months, those failing to drop their waistlines will be given further re-education, complete with pointers on good diet and healthy living.

So, you think the Japanese are crazy for mandating the limits on how fat a citizen can get? Well, not if you check out some of the latest statistics on the world’s growing waistlines and the problems associated with it. According to the International Diabetes Federation (IDF), obese and overweight citizenry now make up a whopping 50-65% of the population in the USA, Europe, Australia, and developing countries such as Mexico, Egypt, and the black population of South Africa.

In the United States alone, as many as 61% of adults in the 20-74 years age range are now considered overweight or obese. Meanwhile, United Kingdom leads all of Europe as the fastest growing fat nation, with as high as 40% of the population expected to be obese by 2025. In simple words, while more than half the world’s population is crying hunger due to sky-high food prices, at least 1.6 billion people are eating themselves to death.

IDF estimates that one in three Americans born today will grow up to develop diabetes as a consequence of obesity. This will add to the 194 million people worldwide that suffer from diabetes—the number is expected to spiral to 333 million by 2025, putting additional strain on meagre health resources in developing countries. The health problems related to obesity include heightened risks of heart attacks, cancer, stroke, and generally short life expectancy. For example, someone who is 40 percent overweight is twice as likely to die prematurely as an average-weight person. Obese (overweight) adults forecast life expectancies is 3.9 years shorter than those of normal weight adults.

Of course, there are those who will argue that Japan’s approach to the waistline criminalises the way a person looks or how much he or she weighs. Furthermore, it can be argued that those who fail to meet the condition of the law will hide from medical check-ups for other potentially fatal illnesses. In other words, should the law target those who carry a certain weight? As one wag on the internet put it, “Where will all the Japanese sumo wrestlers go now?” That said there are some merits to the Japanese law. Seen as an educational tool to force citizens to seek healthier lifestyles, the law could act as the first alarm bell that warns a person of a certain age to take a second look at his or her health. Say a person’s behaviour places him or her in the risk category for obesity, then the law provides a chance to make adjustments to the lifestyle. Think here of all the beer-guzzling, roast-meat chomping men that fill up drinking holes after work in cities like Johannesburg, Nairobi, Kampala, Dakar, Manila and so forth. Now, on the face of it, these are social gathering spots that enable men (especially men) to take it easy after a day’s work. Why not down a few Pilsner, Tusker, Castle, Bell or Nile Special or whatever is available in the bar, and have some fun with the boys?

Problems arise when those with serious “beer-bellies” fail to see the potential consequences surrounding their expanding girths.

In certain social contexts, the beer belly may be construed as the measure of status of how “big and important” the individual is—light weights with no bellies cannot be that important, so goes the thinking. Show us the belly, and many do. However, the implementation of a waistline law, Japanese style, would force individuals to stop for a moment, consider their health, and decide whether or not to make necessary lifestyle changes. Now, it may be that many will scoff at such a law, and make it the stuff for merry-making in bars around the world—especially if the fat police themselves are fat—but, at the very least, it creates a conversation about the potential ill-health connected with obesity.

Okay, now that this has your attention, go ahead and drink that beer, but mind the belly.

Opiyo.oloya@sympatico.ca