It's true - Thais are getting bigger

Something I have suspected for some time turned out to be true this week - Thai people are getting bigger. Below is an article published in newspapers here this week (February 2009) which shows just how they have grown.

I don't think it's different for any other nationality - I seem to remember an airline survey some time which found that the size of backsides had ballooned.... (Just look around). Not that this made the airlines increase the size of their seats - they just cut down on the amount of food served and introduced slimming (ie. low-cost) menus.

But back to the Thai people. When I first came to Thailand, one did not see too many overweight Thais on the streets. However these days the number of fat children is quite obvious. The government is well aware of it and they have outdoor aerobics sessions in parks and squares in most towns in a bid to help people keep fit.

However, the spread of fast-food outlets and ice-cream shops is definitely having an effect. Here's the story:

BANGKOK: -- Thailand’s first standard body size chart has been unveiled to the public on Wednesday, with Thai people developing bigger sizes and shapes than the past generation.

The National Electronics and Computer Technology Center (NECTEC), under the Ministry of Science and Technology, announced its team of 11 researchers has successfully developed Thai standard size chart under the two-year programme called ‘SizeThailand’.

Dr. Chularat Tanprasert, who initiates the SizeThailand programme, said researchers have collated the average size of 13,442 Thai men and women of different age group across the country by using advanced 3D Body Scanning technology.

The research found that Thai men have grown more than seven centimetre taller and about 12 kilometre fatter, while Thai women have grown five centimetre taller and about five and a half kilogrammes fatter compared to 25 years ago. ‘Thai women’s waistline has also ballooned by 3.7 inches, bottom grown by 2 inches and chest expanded by 2.2 inches,’ said Dr. Chularat.

The fact that Thai men and women have developed significantly bigger chests, waists and bottoms, means the shape of the average Thai has also changed. In particular, Dr. Chularat noted, the women have become more tubular and have less of the traditional hourglass shape.

Meanwhile, Minister of Science and Technology Dr. Kalaya Sophonpanich said the findings will help Thai fashion, furniture and automobile industries design products which better suit the typical Thai physical standard and adopt more effective stockpile management strategies.

Dr. Kalaya added that the SizeThailand programme also gives advantages to medical experts to apply data analysing specific health risks associated with the patient’s physique.

The minister noted Thailand is the fifth country, after the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Japan respectively, to have used Three Dimensional (3D) Body Scanning technology to collate data on their population to develop typical standard body size chart for the benefits of the local industries.

SizeThai (acronym TH) consists of nine sizes for men: TH 32, 34, 36, 38, 40, 42, 44, and 46m while there are 10 sizes for women: TH 28, 30, 32, 34, 36, 38, 40,c42, 44 and 46. The majority of Thai men size are TH 40, while women are TH 36.

-- TNA 2009-02-25

Certainly interesting - as long as they keep 3D screener away from me....