Can you use your body and a rope to show the numbers 1, 8, 2 and 4? That was the warm-up exercise for more than 100 people at the south mall of Taipei Main Station yesterday morning.
Men, women and children were preparing to present a human domino displaying the number "1824."
The number refers to the normal range for a person's body mass index (BMI) announced by the nation's Department of Health (DOH), which should be between of 18.5 and 24.
The department shortened it to "1824" in order to create an easy-to-remember slogan to promote the campaign.
A person's BMI is calculated by dividing a person's weight in kilograms by the square of their height in meters.
Participants first lined up to form each number. On command, each participant then twisted their bodies and used the rope they held in their hands to show 1, 8, 2, and 4 respectively.
lying down
Later, participants sat on the ground and shouted "1824" before lying down. They stayed in this position for about a minute before sitting up again.
Cheng Hui-wen (鄭慧文), director general of the DOH's Bureau of Food Sanitation, said a person is considered overweight if his or her BMI is between 24 and 27.
One is considered obese if BMI exceeds 27, Cheng said. Those whose BMI is below 18.5 are considered underweight, which is not healthy either, he said.
Cheng said the key to achieving a normal BMI is to move more and eat less.
When asked about his BMI, however, Cheng said he was too embarrassed to own up, but stressed he has yet to be considered obese.
Cheng said a poll for the BMI campaign this year found a majority of people had been informed about the significance of the number "1824."
While some of yesterday's participants could clearly articulate what the number 1824 represents, some still did not have a clue.
The department conducted a national health census in 1996 and found that one out of seven people in Taiwan is overweight. It is planning to hold another national census next year.
underweight
More attention is now being focussed on the dangers of being underweight. For example, media reported last month that Israeli model Ilanit Elmalich died of complications from anorexia on her 34th birthday. Elmalich was 1.72m tall and weighed 22kg at her death, which translated to a BMI of about seven.
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