High fives to Canada for catching up with the US in getting Dunlap’s Disease (a condition where your belly done lapped over your belt). If we could find a way to funnel some buffets down to Mexico, we could succeed in making the entire North American continent sink about two inches into the sea.
Unlike earlier studies that used an honour system, expecting respondents not to lie about their weight, Statistics Canada decided to measure height and weight themselves.
The result was a sudden increase in the number of overweight Canadians, rising from 48% to 59%
After some careful consideration, Michael Tjepkema, an analyst for Statistics Canada, reported a surprising piece of information.
“Self-reported data are known to underestimate the prevalence of overweight and obesity,” he said.
He also learned that women especially have a history of lying about their weight and age, leading to some serious doubt about other things like hair color, frequency of orgasm, and how much his wife spent at “the mall.”
Published in the journal Health Reports, the research reported that the number of overweight Canadians has increased to almost 15 million. The population of Canada is just shy of 33 million.
No one was exempt from weight gain, all age groups, except toddlers, showed an increase in body mass index (BMI). In teenagers, rates of obesity increased threefold from 3% to 9%. One in four elderly subjects (over 75) were considered obese.
A direct correlation was found between the amount teens spent in front of the tube, either watch TV or playing video games, and their chances of being overweight.
Researchers collected the data between January and December of 2004, measuring and weighing 35,000 Canadians and calculating their BMI. A BMI of 25 or more is considered overweight while 30 or more is considered obese.
