I talked before about the eating habits of Thai people. I mentioned that they seemed to snack all day and still remain quite slender. However, this is not saying that there are no obese people in Thailand. Far from it. There are quite a few very chubby students at my school. I would go and take a picture of them now but my Western sense of decency would forbid it. However, if I asked one of my Thai computer teachers to take a picture, they would go and do it. Not only that, they would also tell the student and everyone within hearing distance exactly why I needed the picture! (see picture above)
To Thai people there is nothing wrong about this. After all, some people have nicknames from birth until adulthood that mean “fatty” or “piggy”. If you are fat then they will tell you without any malice. In fact, I had quite a few teachers last year point at me and say “fat” and “big big” and gestured with their hands which parts. (I had put on quite a bit of weight over the last year or so and the teachers were only too happy to point this out to me.)
I do believe that the reason why some people can snack all day and not get fat and others do is a lot to do with their diet. Many of the children today are snacking on Western junk food. Take a look at the canteen in our school for starters. Everything is deep fried. Then there is the toast which is covered in sugar and cream. I think that if the Thai people stick to Thai food only, then they would stay thin.
Newspapers are now reporting that 14% of Thai children are obese. They are mainly blaming Western fast food, like McDonalds. However, they also note that the new generation spends too much time watching t.v. and playing video games. They are not going out to play as much as they did in the past. I think all of these are contributing factors. At our school they are now trying to promote a healthy lifestyle by having a big aerobics session every Friday after assembly. What they probably need to do next is sort out the snack shop menu.
INTERESTING FACTS: According to the Kasikorn Research Centre, the country’s quick-service restaurant industry is now worth about 12 billion baht a year. Of the total, chicken menus account for about 6.2 billion baht, 2.9 billion for burgers and another 2.9 billion baht for pizza. A survey in 2004 by market researcher ACNielsen showed that KFC was the leader in the chicken market with a 72% share, followed by McDonald’s with 15% and Chester’s Grill at 11%. In the burger market, however, McDonald’s is the leader with a 72% share, followed by KFC with 24% and the rest shared among other brands.
I am very overweight myself so probably I should keep myself away from the topic, but at least I am not an innocent 6-year-old who has no idea (i.e., I am killing myself on purpose).
There is a 3-year-old in my school who is normal height but weighs 40 kilos, same waist size as his teacher. He can hardly walk. Other overweight kids can at least run around and play quite unaffected. The Thai teachers tried to talk to the parents, telling them about healthy diet, etc. The next day the kid brought french fries for breakfast – potatoes are vegetables, right? The next day, orange-cream filled cakes,oranges are fruits, aren’t they??
We have been trying to refer them to a specialist but it is difficult as there is no regular, official checkup by a doctor or nurse, all we can do is keep talking….
Btw, I don’t think it helps either that Thai school kids have 45 minutes of sport per WEEK at school, much of which is lining up to have a turn…. not even an intense workout. And they spend 7+ hours sitting at a desk starting from age 4. It does not only affect their health and weight. It is completely ignored that children’s brain is 80% the size of an adult brain, but their lungs are 25% of the adult capacity and they simply need more physical activity just to keep their brains oxygenated enough. I have to be constantly fighting school administration to allow for enough free time / playground time / exercise between classes for 6-year-olds. It needs to be disguised as sports day rehearsal, cheerleading rehearsal, English through songs, etc – use your creativity…. We’ve managed to squeeze in a daily 60 to 80 minutes only (in school hours, they play more if they come early or leave late). In my home country, 180 minutes per day are compulsory for this age group.
Nice and convenient to blame it on McDonald’s…..
I see the picture from the food and now I’m very hungry
It really is amazing how Thai people stay so thin. I mean, I’ve spent a few months there and although they snack on “Thai food” all day, it is still not the healthiest snack food. They have loads of deepfried goodies (and I’m not talking about the North American fast food chains). One popular snack is deep fried bananas, deep fries chicken, and all the rice that is consumed, none of it is whole grain. Eating that much white rice without moving around alot isn’t good for anyone, it just turns to sugar and fat once you consume it. I think maybe they are all thin because of the heat! Everytime I visit, I eat like a pig and loose at least a couple kilos! They must be sweating out all the fat they consume:)
Thai people are very particular about their food habbits despite been eaters. What realy amaze me the most is their slim nature with all the rice, sugar and fried stuffs they eat all day, i can’t but wonder how could the rate of obessity be such little amongs them considering their feeding habbits. My point of view is based on my own wife (thai wife) we have been married for over nine years now and i must tell you she eats all day, not large sum at once but bit by bit all day from rice, to noodle with loads of sugar input, the fried ferries, the sweet delicacies (khon wan) and she is just shape perfect and considering that my wife hates exercising that leave me realy baffled how come the sugar and other sweets intake not turned into fat in them. Its realy amazing and looking at it a situation where me her husband eats just once a day and yet i’m very much bigger in size to her perfect slim features.
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I read this post via the twitter feed. It was interesting to see both sides of the what will be an ongoing story.
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