Thai women second fattest in Asia

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Big Boy
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Thai women second fattest in Asia

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Now, before we start, I'm the last person to criticise.

The president of the Diabetes Association of Thailand shed light on the obesity problem in the country by announcing that Thai women are the second most obese group of women in Asia.

Dr. Wannee Nithiyanan said that only Malaysian women are more overweight than Thais. She blamed poor diet and insufficient exercise as the cause of the problem, Daily News reported.

She said that 8,000 Thais die each year from diabetes. Figures show that, in the five years from 2009 to 2014, the number of diabetic individuals in Thailand has increased from from 3.3 to 4.8 million, and 7.7 million other people are currently at risk for developing diabetes.

Without giving statistics on female patients, she said diabetes is more prevalent in Thai women than men.

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Thoughts: I often sit on the little wall at the bottom of the escalator in Market Village, people watching. I must admit, I have reflected on the size of Thai women many times recently. In fact I often reflect on how guys rave about this Thai woman or that Thai woman.

The fact is that when I first started coming to Thailand in the 80s, it was rare to see anybody with an ounce of fat on them. I was a freak. Every brothel used to employ a fatty especially for the Arab customers. I used to look at Thai women and compare with UK women, and it was a no contest. Thai women were so slender, they were all beautiful.

I now look at Thai and Farang women walking down the aisle, and wow, how the roles have reversed. The Farang women haven't changed that much, but the Thai women seen to have ballooned.
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Re: Thai women second fattest in Asia

Post by Vital Spark »

Totally agree. When we first arrived here 20 years ago the majority of Thai women had fabulous figures (at all ages). I've noticed that about 25% of the students I currently teach have bigger bums than me - that certainly wasn't the case when I first started teaching.

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Re: Thai women second fattest in Asia

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Surprises me a bit actually - Malaysia has always had a problem, so no surprise there at being No.1, but China certainly has an issue and you could see the impact that the influx of Fast Food (McD's, Pizza Hut etc) in early 2000's and also the country's huge growth had regarding this issue. How about India? South Korea? Certainly some "Porkers" there......

Ultimately it's a worldwide issue - I remember returning to the UK for the first time in a few years around 2008 and just being stunned by the size of the young women. The change over a few years was incredible (and certainly not for the better)!

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Re: Thai women second fattest in Asia

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I'm not at all surprised. The spend half the day sitting and eating. I also don't believe it has anything to do with western fast food outlets.I knows scores of overweight Thais, and not one of them are frequent customers of BK, McD, KFC, and etc. Most Thai street food is as fattening as any western fast food and the Thais eat copious amounts of it.

In the afternoons when I pick my kids up at school, every second child is gorging on deep fried foods or Thai-style deserts which are 99% sugar.


At my local shop, the entire family look like hot air balloons. They don't eat western fast food, but at no one times will you see less that 6 or 7 bowls of food on the table, most of which is fried, and about half of that is junk food. I've often observed them and it's like an eating machine in action.


As others have said, the difference over the past 10 to 15 years is incredible, and a shame really.

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Re: Thai women second fattest in Asia

Post by Henry 14th »

Lots of blame goes to 7-11 in my view.

XL cartons and of soda, iced coffee, frankfurter sausages - all that stuff has plagued the nation.


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Re: Thai women second fattest in Asia

Post by Gregjam »

Easy access to food has always been there and although the introduction of western style food has probably not helped perhaps other non food relared quality of life improvements are to blame. From the age of about six kids seem to have access to a salaeng or moped so no effort is required to get to the shop to buy the food. TV,s computers, tablets and even an electric fan contribute to kids inactivity. Thai society has moved forward in many ways both good and bad with an increase in obesity one of the effects for both men and women. Sport may help the men but with the women so preoccupied with a pale complexion and looking their best it comes as no surprise they have been singled out in this survey.
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Re: Thai women second fattest in Asia

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Takiap wrote: Fri Nov 17, 2017 6:38 am I'm not at all surprised. The spend half the day sitting and eating. I also don't believe it has anything to do with western fast food outlets.I knows scores of overweight Thais, and not one of them are frequent customers of BK, McD, KFC, and etc. Most Thai street food is as fattening as any western fast food and the Thais eat copious amounts of it.

In the afternoons when I pick my kids up at school, every second child is gorging on deep fried foods or Thai-style deserts which are 99% sugar.
I'm not sure I entirely agree with you.

Thais have always done the sitting and eating thing for as long as I've known. In Isaan, it is impossible to visit somebody's house without having a dish of food put in front of you. However, even though the look of most dishes scares the hell out of me, you can see, in most cases the food is healthy/nutritious.

The recent changes have to be down to the type of foods eaten. I don't necessarily accuse the large chains of food outlets BK, McD, KFC, and etc. These places are still treats for most Thais, so aren't used frequently enough to be the problem. Neither do I entirely blame the likes of 7-11. Yes, of course, they all contribute to the problem.

I think it's more down to the food manufacturers, and the foods they produce. Every Ma & Pa shop (as well as 7-11 and Family Mart etc.) these days has boxes of crisps and similar snacks available at Thai prices. They have to sell the stuff to comete with the likes of 7-11. The mass produced 'plastic' sausages (what goes into one of them?), The street vendors that appear everywhere as well - some of those drinks they sell. My wife often buys that red soda - my god, I've tasted it. There must be a Kg of sugar in every sip.

The one thing we will agree on is the amount of vendors waiting for kids outside of schools. Yes, it's easy for parents to give the kids a few Baht to let them buy their own tea, but what are they buying? I've seen some of the stuff my grand kids arrive with when I collect them from school (yes, they are overweight). A lot of it has been saturated with cooking oil.

It is such a shame that an entire nation seems to have gone from ultra skinny to very plump in such a short period.
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Re: Thai women second fattest in Asia

Post by 404cameljockey »

I think BB is right that sweets and snacks are the problem, with their unhealthy composition. Thai lifestyle is to eat all day, a little here, a little there. If you're buying veg and grilled food from a street cart then the food should be nutritious; if you're buying packets of snacks from a supermarket it very often won't and will be full of sugar and additives. A huge education drive is needed, if they pay attention then good, if not then they have themselves to blame.

You can say the same in the West too, where at least some attempt is made by the government to educate but people often make excuses and ignore it: no time to cook (my mum and dad worked long days but cooked), too expensive to buy fresh food produce, don't even know how to cook. I've read that poor people are often fatter than wealthy people because of their choice of food and drink. I guess it's usually because of ignorance of the facts.
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Re: Thai women second fattest in Asia

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404cameljockey wrote: Fri Nov 17, 2017 8:46 am I've read that poor people are often fatter than wealthy people because of their choice of food and drink. I guess it's usually because of ignorance of the facts.
I don't think it's only ignorance, it is cost also. I'm supposed to avoid sugar, but sugar substitutes here cost about 12 times as much as the UK. Every UK visitor is asked to bring some with them for me.

Have you tried to buy basic sugar free products in Thailand? If you can find them, they are megga-expensive. I'm not sure why, because manufacturers already make healthier versions of their products. Maybe it is lack of education resulting in no demand for the healthier products. Maybe local mentality thinks they aren't getting value for money if there's less salt, less sugar etc. I don't know, but solutions are out there, they just have to be made affordable to all.
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Re: Thai women second fattest in Asia

Post by PBbeacher »

I always feel very sad to see the vendors lined up outside of schools selling utter crap to the kids of all ages - all fried, fatty, or sugary junk, pretty disgraceful. It's inside the schools too - 'tuck' shops selling candy, soda and ice cream all day everyday.
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Re: Thai women second fattest in Asia

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There are McDonalds outlets at Bumrungrad and Bangkok Hospital in BKK
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Re: Thai women second fattest in Asia

Post by caller »

This made me sit up and take notice back in October 2015 in Samut Sakhon. Thai's being ingenious as ever!

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Re: Thai women second fattest in Asia

Post by 404cameljockey »

TBH I'm wondering if Thai men like their women on the solid side? Nothing wrong with that. The 'ideal' Thai woman (Western style thin straight nose, white skin, slim as a reed) as shown on Thai airline ads and as hunted for by Thai hotels for their front desks has never been my idea of a desirable Thai woman.

Looking around Market Village today I didn't see so many huge women, but a lot of regular shapes, however definitely not skinny. If anything the big females seem very often to be the schoolkids, but puppy fat if not gone out of control can be lost once boys are discovered.
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Re: Thai women second fattest in Asia

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Everybody has their own tastes. My point, however is that you could not find an ounce of fat on Thai women under the age of 50 (they barely had breasts) back in the 80s. Actually, you couldn't find an ounce of fat on any Thais, man, woman or child.

At that time, most Western women seened fat in comparison.

I guess it comes down to what yardstick is used to determine fat. In my comparison (to the 80s), I'd classify 90% as fat. If you are comparing to Western women of of the 80s, the statistics wouldn't be anywhere near as bad.
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Re: Thai women second fattest in Asia

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This video will give an idea of the Thai physique in the past. Pete :cheers:

NOTE: Skin whitener had not yet been introduced!

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