15 July 2009
London, UK
Standards used worldwide to tell when someone is overweight or obese are based on data from white people
India has 70 million people who have been re–classified as overweight or obese, after a lowering of obesity thresholds.
This threshold has been lowered in India as South Asian people are more liable than their white counterparts to develop obesity–linked conditions like Type 2 (T–2) diabetes and heart disease, reports IANS.
“We know that T–2 diabetes, which is linked to being overweight, is up to six times more common in South Asian people than the white population,” care adviser at Diabetes–UK Pav Kalsi said.
Standards used worldwide to tell when someone is overweight or obese are based on data from white people.
These state that people with a body mass index (BMI) of 25 or more are overweight and obese if it goes above 30. BMI is calculated using weight and height.
In India those limits have been lowered to 23 for being overweight and 25 for being obese, to reflect the risks to the population. Indians also have lower thresholds for waist circumference measurements.
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