Kevin1708
Century Club
“Within ten years, eight out of ten men and almost 70 per cent of women will be overweight or obese.”
By Barney Calman
Last updated at 10:00 PM on 27th February 2010
Jose Bentham, 39, and Susan Golton, 22, winners of the Science Museum's competition to find two individuals who matched the measurements of the average man and woman in the UK: 5ft 7in and 13st for him, 5ft 3in and 11st for her.
Britons bared: Jose Bentham is Mr Average at 5ft 7in tall and 13 stone 1lb in weight, with a 38in waist and 41in hips. Ms Average, Susan Goltan, is 5ft 3in tall and weighs 11stone, with a 34in waist and 41in hips
Based on the latest NHS statistics, aside from their height and weight, we know that the average British male takes a 38in waist trouser and measures 41in around the hips. The average woman has a 34in waist and also has 41in hips.
Jose was quite shocked to learn his waist measurement. 'I always thought I was a 34,' he says. 'It was only when my wife measured me that I realised I'd been squeezing into jeans that were too small. I suppose I was just breathing in.'
For Susan, finding out she was average was a pleasant surprise. 'I'm a dress size 14 or 16,' she says. 'I used to be an 18 but I've lost weight since taking up karate. I always thought I was big, so it was good to discover I am the UK average.'
While both freely admit they are not exactly the athletic ideal, they are happy with what they see in the mirror. So it is surprising and worrying to learn that their vital statistics are far from the healthy ideal.
As Yorkshire GP Dr Ralph Sullivan, advisor to the NHS Information Centre, says: 'From a medical point of view, the average man and woman in Britain today is overweight, which is a concern.
'If they were any larger, they would be at higher risk of many health problems including diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol and heart disease - including raised risk of stroke - fertility problems and cancer.
'Hopefully, the public will look at these two individuals, and think about their own weight, inspiring them to make a change.'
NHS statistics show that body mass in the UK has been rising over the past 20 years. Two decades ago 38.7 per cent of adults were classified as overweight while 17.5 per cent were obese.
Today, numbers of overweight adults have dropped to 36.9 per cent, but those classed as obese have risen to 24.5 per cent - an astounding one in four adults. This has led to Britain being dubbed 'the fat man of Europe'.
According to the World Health Organisation, we have the highest obesity rate on the Continent, twice that of France. And this month a study from Oxford University claims that within ten years, eight out of ten men and almost 70 per cent of women will be overweight or obese.
Size matters: Jose Bentham and Susan Goltan are both overweight, according to their BMI scores.
So how do the experts decide someone is above a healthy weight? Traditionally, doctors have looked to a body mass index (BMI) score - a height-to-weight ratio commonly used by medics to measure obesity.
BMI figures are classified within a range, for example 18 to 25 is ideal and more than 30 is obese, the level at which studies have shown excess weight begins to significantly increase health risks.
Those with a BMI of between 25 and 30 are classed overweight, or pre-obese, as doctors prefer to call it, as we tend to get fatter as we get older. The average British man and woman scores 27.
But does this mean Mr and Mrs Average are unhealthy? Not necessarily, as long as they do not put on any more weight.
In recent years, critics have argued that BMI alone is not a good measure of health. The score does not take body composition into account, including muscle and bone mass. Muscle weighs more that fat, so an athlete could have a high BMI score without being overweight.
And respected epidemiological research from Harvard University, and by Professor Dimitrios Trichopoulos published in the British Medical Journal, have thrown the once generally accepted BMI ranges into question.
The ongoing studies, in which thousands of people are being monitored, have shown that many individuals with a BMI of 27, and who eat a balanced diet, do not have a raised risk of ill health (although anyone over this BMI does).
This research has led experts to look to waist measurement - and more specifically hip-to-waist ratio - as a better indicator of potential health risk. According to a study in The Lancet in 2005, fat deposited around the midriff, known as central obesity, can dramatically increase the risk of heart attacks, even if the individual has a 'healthy' BMI.
Waist-to-hip ratio can be calculated by dividing waist measurement by that of the hips. For men, a ratio should ideally not be more than 0.90. For women, it is 0.85. The higher the number above these values, the greater the risk of heart disease. Other studies have shown that central obesity also plays a pivotal role in the development of type 2 diabetes.
Susan, representing the average British woman, has a hip-to-waist ratio of 0.83, a fraction below the risk threshold. Surprisingly, Jose scores 0.92, nudging him into the higher risk category.
'Central obesity is a better indicator as to whether a person needs to lose weight for health reasons,' says Catherine Collins, principal dietician at St George's Hospital, London. 'Jose is mature and unlikely to pile on weight, but Susan is only 22, which is a worry as women in particular gain weight with age.'
A design student at the Royal College of Art, Susan lives with her fiancé, Steve, 25, in Milton Keynes, and tries to live a healthy lifestyle.
'I have toast in the morning and a sandwich for lunch,' she says. 'If I'm at college late, I might grab a sandwich on the way home rather than eat when I get in. At the weekend, I'll have a pizza, but I'm not a junk food fan. I don't drink much - just a glass of wine on Saturday night. And I do karate twice a week.'
Jose is a banker who lives in Hertfordshire with his wife Caroline, 37, and children Mia, six, and three-year-old twins Archie and Zara.
He says: 'Breakfast is a pretzel or bacon roll, lunch a sandwich or salad, and I have a home-cooked meal at night. I don't get time to exercise during the week but at the weekends we walk as a family, and I go mountain biking.'
So far, so ordinary - yet they are, according to medical guidelines at least, overweight. Why? Collins says: 'They are eating too many starchy foods - bread or pasta - which are energy rich - for their fairly inactive lifestyles. Small bouts of exercise, once or twice a week, are not enough to burn this off. They really need daily activity. Of course Susan and Jose are not unusual. We know that relatively few adults are managing this.'
The result is that we are fatter than ever before. Today, men are 11lb heavier, and women 9lb more than their counterparts in 1991.
In 2004, the National Sizing Survey - a collaboration between the Department of Trade and Industry, British retailers and academics - looked at changing body shapes in relation to clothing size.
According to their data, in 1951 women had a 27in waist, a shocking-seven inches slimmer than today. They found no comparable data for male clothes, but a clue may be found in Army uniform sizes from the Second World War.
According to the British Army Museum archives, fatigues were made in 19 set sizes, to fit men ranging in height from 5ft 4in to 6ft 2in. The largest trousers for men under 6ft had a 34in waist.
A man of Jose's height, 5ft 7in (and remember, as Mr Average, he has a 38in waist) would have had to fit into a 32in waist trouser. But strangely, studies show we actually eat less now than we did then.
The National Food Survey of 1945 found that women ate 2,500 calories a day, and men 3,000. Today, the Government's Food Standard Agency reveals that we eat far less - men an average of 2,000 to 2,500 calories, and women 1,500 to 2,000 calories a day.
This is why experts seem to agree an increasingly sedentary lifestyle, with mainly desk-based jobs, coupled with starch-based diets, is the main reason behind our national weight gain.
According to the Economic and Social Research Council, those in professional or managerial jobs has risen from 17 per cent in the Fifties, to 41 per cent of the population today.
National weight-gain is proving an intolerable economic strain on the Health Service. The latest figures from the NHS Information Centre, released this month, reveal that the number of individuals admitted to hospital for being grossly obese shot up by almost 60 per cent last year, to 7,990 - eight times higher than in 1999.
Complaints include heart attacks, bed sores and leg ulcers due to impaired ability to move. Weight problems are said to be responsible for some 30,000 avoidable deaths each year.
The annual drain on the public purse due to medical treatment of overweight and obese individuals is estimated to be £4.2billion.
According to Collins, the average man and woman stand at a crossroads. 'We are at the threshold,' she says. 'Diabetes and heart disease rates have already doubled in the past two decades.
'If we continue to put on weight as we have done, there is a real possibility of mass illness.'
So how do Jose and Susan feel about being representatives of the state of British health?
'I'm not ideal, but if this is what the average man in the UK looks like, then people can draw their own conclusions,' says Jose. 'Most of my mates look more like me than David Beckham.'
Susan says: 'I hope women will look at me and realise that the stick-thin models they see in magazines aren't the norm. I am average and proud of that.'
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1254195/Mr-Ms-Average-look-healthy-So-greater-risk-heart-disease-cancer.html#ixzz1JWEeJAnB
By Barney Calman
Last updated at 10:00 PM on 27th February 2010
Jose Bentham, 39, and Susan Golton, 22, winners of the Science Museum's competition to find two individuals who matched the measurements of the average man and woman in the UK: 5ft 7in and 13st for him, 5ft 3in and 11st for her.
Britons bared: Jose Bentham is Mr Average at 5ft 7in tall and 13 stone 1lb in weight, with a 38in waist and 41in hips. Ms Average, Susan Goltan, is 5ft 3in tall and weighs 11stone, with a 34in waist and 41in hips
Based on the latest NHS statistics, aside from their height and weight, we know that the average British male takes a 38in waist trouser and measures 41in around the hips. The average woman has a 34in waist and also has 41in hips.
Jose was quite shocked to learn his waist measurement. 'I always thought I was a 34,' he says. 'It was only when my wife measured me that I realised I'd been squeezing into jeans that were too small. I suppose I was just breathing in.'
For Susan, finding out she was average was a pleasant surprise. 'I'm a dress size 14 or 16,' she says. 'I used to be an 18 but I've lost weight since taking up karate. I always thought I was big, so it was good to discover I am the UK average.'
While both freely admit they are not exactly the athletic ideal, they are happy with what they see in the mirror. So it is surprising and worrying to learn that their vital statistics are far from the healthy ideal.
As Yorkshire GP Dr Ralph Sullivan, advisor to the NHS Information Centre, says: 'From a medical point of view, the average man and woman in Britain today is overweight, which is a concern.
'If they were any larger, they would be at higher risk of many health problems including diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol and heart disease - including raised risk of stroke - fertility problems and cancer.
'Hopefully, the public will look at these two individuals, and think about their own weight, inspiring them to make a change.'
NHS statistics show that body mass in the UK has been rising over the past 20 years. Two decades ago 38.7 per cent of adults were classified as overweight while 17.5 per cent were obese.
Today, numbers of overweight adults have dropped to 36.9 per cent, but those classed as obese have risen to 24.5 per cent - an astounding one in four adults. This has led to Britain being dubbed 'the fat man of Europe'.
According to the World Health Organisation, we have the highest obesity rate on the Continent, twice that of France. And this month a study from Oxford University claims that within ten years, eight out of ten men and almost 70 per cent of women will be overweight or obese.
Size matters: Jose Bentham and Susan Goltan are both overweight, according to their BMI scores.
So how do the experts decide someone is above a healthy weight? Traditionally, doctors have looked to a body mass index (BMI) score - a height-to-weight ratio commonly used by medics to measure obesity.
BMI figures are classified within a range, for example 18 to 25 is ideal and more than 30 is obese, the level at which studies have shown excess weight begins to significantly increase health risks.
Those with a BMI of between 25 and 30 are classed overweight, or pre-obese, as doctors prefer to call it, as we tend to get fatter as we get older. The average British man and woman scores 27.
But does this mean Mr and Mrs Average are unhealthy? Not necessarily, as long as they do not put on any more weight.
In recent years, critics have argued that BMI alone is not a good measure of health. The score does not take body composition into account, including muscle and bone mass. Muscle weighs more that fat, so an athlete could have a high BMI score without being overweight.
And respected epidemiological research from Harvard University, and by Professor Dimitrios Trichopoulos published in the British Medical Journal, have thrown the once generally accepted BMI ranges into question.
The ongoing studies, in which thousands of people are being monitored, have shown that many individuals with a BMI of 27, and who eat a balanced diet, do not have a raised risk of ill health (although anyone over this BMI does).
This research has led experts to look to waist measurement - and more specifically hip-to-waist ratio - as a better indicator of potential health risk. According to a study in The Lancet in 2005, fat deposited around the midriff, known as central obesity, can dramatically increase the risk of heart attacks, even if the individual has a 'healthy' BMI.
Waist-to-hip ratio can be calculated by dividing waist measurement by that of the hips. For men, a ratio should ideally not be more than 0.90. For women, it is 0.85. The higher the number above these values, the greater the risk of heart disease. Other studies have shown that central obesity also plays a pivotal role in the development of type 2 diabetes.
Susan, representing the average British woman, has a hip-to-waist ratio of 0.83, a fraction below the risk threshold. Surprisingly, Jose scores 0.92, nudging him into the higher risk category.
'Central obesity is a better indicator as to whether a person needs to lose weight for health reasons,' says Catherine Collins, principal dietician at St George's Hospital, London. 'Jose is mature and unlikely to pile on weight, but Susan is only 22, which is a worry as women in particular gain weight with age.'
A design student at the Royal College of Art, Susan lives with her fiancé, Steve, 25, in Milton Keynes, and tries to live a healthy lifestyle.
'I have toast in the morning and a sandwich for lunch,' she says. 'If I'm at college late, I might grab a sandwich on the way home rather than eat when I get in. At the weekend, I'll have a pizza, but I'm not a junk food fan. I don't drink much - just a glass of wine on Saturday night. And I do karate twice a week.'
Jose is a banker who lives in Hertfordshire with his wife Caroline, 37, and children Mia, six, and three-year-old twins Archie and Zara.
He says: 'Breakfast is a pretzel or bacon roll, lunch a sandwich or salad, and I have a home-cooked meal at night. I don't get time to exercise during the week but at the weekends we walk as a family, and I go mountain biking.'
So far, so ordinary - yet they are, according to medical guidelines at least, overweight. Why? Collins says: 'They are eating too many starchy foods - bread or pasta - which are energy rich - for their fairly inactive lifestyles. Small bouts of exercise, once or twice a week, are not enough to burn this off. They really need daily activity. Of course Susan and Jose are not unusual. We know that relatively few adults are managing this.'
The result is that we are fatter than ever before. Today, men are 11lb heavier, and women 9lb more than their counterparts in 1991.
In 2004, the National Sizing Survey - a collaboration between the Department of Trade and Industry, British retailers and academics - looked at changing body shapes in relation to clothing size.
According to their data, in 1951 women had a 27in waist, a shocking-seven inches slimmer than today. They found no comparable data for male clothes, but a clue may be found in Army uniform sizes from the Second World War.
According to the British Army Museum archives, fatigues were made in 19 set sizes, to fit men ranging in height from 5ft 4in to 6ft 2in. The largest trousers for men under 6ft had a 34in waist.
A man of Jose's height, 5ft 7in (and remember, as Mr Average, he has a 38in waist) would have had to fit into a 32in waist trouser. But strangely, studies show we actually eat less now than we did then.
The National Food Survey of 1945 found that women ate 2,500 calories a day, and men 3,000. Today, the Government's Food Standard Agency reveals that we eat far less - men an average of 2,000 to 2,500 calories, and women 1,500 to 2,000 calories a day.
This is why experts seem to agree an increasingly sedentary lifestyle, with mainly desk-based jobs, coupled with starch-based diets, is the main reason behind our national weight gain.
According to the Economic and Social Research Council, those in professional or managerial jobs has risen from 17 per cent in the Fifties, to 41 per cent of the population today.
National weight-gain is proving an intolerable economic strain on the Health Service. The latest figures from the NHS Information Centre, released this month, reveal that the number of individuals admitted to hospital for being grossly obese shot up by almost 60 per cent last year, to 7,990 - eight times higher than in 1999.
Complaints include heart attacks, bed sores and leg ulcers due to impaired ability to move. Weight problems are said to be responsible for some 30,000 avoidable deaths each year.
The annual drain on the public purse due to medical treatment of overweight and obese individuals is estimated to be £4.2billion.
According to Collins, the average man and woman stand at a crossroads. 'We are at the threshold,' she says. 'Diabetes and heart disease rates have already doubled in the past two decades.
'If we continue to put on weight as we have done, there is a real possibility of mass illness.'
So how do Jose and Susan feel about being representatives of the state of British health?
'I'm not ideal, but if this is what the average man in the UK looks like, then people can draw their own conclusions,' says Jose. 'Most of my mates look more like me than David Beckham.'
Susan says: 'I hope women will look at me and realise that the stick-thin models they see in magazines aren't the norm. I am average and proud of that.'
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1254195/Mr-Ms-Average-look-healthy-So-greater-risk-heart-disease-cancer.html#ixzz1JWEeJAnB
