あなたは太り過ぎだと思いますか？

Last week, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) released new statistics for the most overweight countries in the world. The most obese countries are as follows:

Mexico (69.5% of people are overweight)
America (68% of people are overweight)
New Zealand (62.6 of people are overweight)
Australia (61.4% of people are overweight)
United Kingdom (61.4% of people are overweight)
Ireland (61% of people are overweight)
Iceland (60.2% of people are overweight)
Canada (60% of people are overweight)
Chile (59.7% of people are overweight)
Greece (58.9% of people are overweight)
Slovenia (55.1% of people are overweight)
Luxembourg (54.8% of people are overweight)
Spain (54.8% of people are overweight)

(Japan and Korea tied for last with about 2% to 3% of people described as obese.)

This information was released just after another study that was done in America by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that said that only 23% of meals include a vegetable. The number of dinners prepared at home that included a salad was 17% (in 1994, it was 22%). And at restaurants, salads ordered as a main course at either lunch or dinner was only 5%.

Of course, eating vegetables alone cannot make someone slim, however, I believe that a variety of food is the key to a healthy diet. Of course, there are many other factors that contribute to weight gain for example exercise or stress, but the fact remains that many people around the world are gaining weight like never before. Are you one of them? You can look at the chart on the left to calculate your ideal weight.

That brings me to this week’s question(s):

Do you think you are overweight? More importantly, do you believe you are healthy? How has your lifestyle and diet changed since you were younger? For example, do you eat the same kinds of food as when you were a kid? Do you exercise more or less than when you were younger? What are some of your bad habits regarding your diet?

I will look forward to hearing your answers when we speak this week.

Be well,

This week’s vocabulary:

released
公表された

statistics
統計

overweight
太り過ぎ

obese
過度の肥満

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
米国疾病対策センター

prepared
用意される

main course
メインコース

slim
ほっそりした

variety
多様な

key
手がかり

healthy diet
健康的なダイエット

factors
要因

contribute
寄与する

the fact remains
その事実は相変わらずである

like never before
かつてないほどの

calculate
計算する

lifestyle
ライフスタイル

bad habits
悪い習慣