The Japanese goverment, however, thinks otherwise and has embarked on a mandatory campaign to slim it’s nation down. Two months ago they passed a national law that requires all companies and local governments to measure the waists of their employees (including family members) aged 40 to 74 as part of their annual checkups. With almost half the Japanese population fitting into this category, that makes an awful lot of waists to be measured.

The new law puts the maximum limit for male waistlines at 33.5 inches and women at 35.4 inches. Anyone exceeding this will be expected to bring their waists into line with the approved government standards through dietary advice, guidance, and education.  Failure to do so will result in the financial penalties being imposed on the employee’s company and local government.

Reducing waistlines has much scientific merit. Studies have proven that being thick around the middle increases your risk of having a heart attack, or gettng cancer, diabetes, and dementia.

So maybe the Japanese government is on the right track but somehow I can’t see the same tactics being used in the United States or England.

Can you?

(source)

POSTSCRIPT: After posting ‘Japanese Government Attacks Metabo’ I received an email from a reader who suggests that my statement ‘reducing waistlines has much scientific merit’, based on information from a NYT article,  might not necessarily be right. The email went on to say ‘ Please consider that all studies are not created equally and correlations are not causations. The facts do not support waistlines as a causative factor in any chronic disease of aging’ and included a link to Metabo — Is a small waistline a measure of health? an article that asks “While having a trim waistline to avoid the dreaded metabo and reduce medical costs has become a popular health mandate, is it evidence-based?” Have a read. Citing numerous studies, Sandy makes a compelling arguement that ‘having a small waist was not a measure of lower risks and having a larger waist size was not a measure of higher risks.’

Post from: Healthbolt