Are you fat? Be thankful that you're in the United States. If you were in Japan, you'd be breaking the law:
In Japan, being thin isn’t just the price you pay for fashion or social acceptance. It’s the law. [...]
In Japan, already the slimmest industrialized nation, people are fighting fat to ward off dreaded metabolic syndrome and comply with a government-imposed waistline standard. Metabolic syndrome, known here simply as “metabo,” is a combination of health risks, including stomach flab, high blood pressure and high cholesterol, that can lead to cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
Concerned about rising rates of both in a graying nation, Japanese lawmakers last year set a maximum waistline size for anyone age 40 and older: 85 centimeters (33.5 inches) for men and 90 centimeters (35.4 inches) for women.
I'm average height for an American, and not 40 years old, but by all accounts and measures I'm a normal, healthy weight for my height- with a 34" waist.
I am not against the idea of introducing obese people to the resources to lose weight and become healthier, but surely the indicator would be the body mass index rather than the somewhat more arbitrary waist measurement.
As noted by doctors in the article, we are in danger of dealing over strongly with the apparent epidemic of obesity and teaching our youth that thinner is better to the point where anorexia and malnutrition will become more prominent.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelvis#Sexual_dimorphism
hey, guess what; theres this thing called "the rest of the planet"
and it means that people not from america are reading the article.
In both Japan and Netherlands cases- BAD research...
Waist measurements(for any particular height) would be much better than a weight or BMI measurement because neither of those account for things like bone density or muscle mass.