Going through the health checkup reports of almost 4,000 university students, Taipei City hospital doctors found that more boys suffered from obesity while more girls were underweight.
The study of 3,996 freshmen at National Chengchi University was collected by the hospital's chief general practitioner, Guo Kuan-liang (
Guo considered a body mass index (BMI) of 27 or above to be obese and a body mass index of 18.5 or under to be underweight. According to these standards, while only 7.4 percent of the student body were obese, 13.2 percent of male students were obese.
Also, 15.7 percent of the overall student body could be considered underweight, with 22.1 percent of females being underweight.
The results are not surprising, said Hsiao Tun-jen (蕭敦仁), a gastroenterologist who specializes in obesity.
"I see a lot of young female patients who want to lose weight despite being quite healthy, and even slim," Hsiao said.
"When I ask them how slim they want to be, they always say `as skinny as possible,'" he said.
Hsiao blames the ubiquitous presence of extremely skinny celebrities and models for influencing women's perceptions of an appropriate and attractive weight.
"I once had a patient who was 160cm tall and weighed 50kg," Hsiao said. "She wanted to lose 5kg more so that she would look like Jolin Tsai (
Instead of treating women who do not have obesity problems, Hsiao said he shows them statistics from England showing that men find women with a BMI of between 19 and 20 most attractive.
Despite the desire of some young women to be extremely skinny, the rate of anorexia is substantially lower in Taiwan than in countries such as the US, said Tseng Mei-chih (曾美智), an attending psychiatrist at National Taiwan University Hospital.
"I don't think the weight data from university students is cause for concern. A BMI of 18.5 is on the low end of what we consider a healthy weight," Tseng said.
"For a long time we did not have proper figures for the rate of anorexia and bulimia in this country," Tseng said. "Last year's figures showed that about one in 1,000 girls are anorexic, while one in 100 girls are bulimic."
Twenty-four Republican members of the US House of Representatives yesterday introduced a concurrent resolution calling on the US government to abolish the “one China” policy and restore formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Led by US representatives Tom Tiffany and Scott Perry, the resolution calls for not only re-establishing formal relations, but also urges the US Trade Representative to negotiate a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Taiwan and for US officials to advocate for Taiwan’s full membership in the UN and other international organizations. In a news release announcing the resolution, Tiffany, who represents a Wisconsin district, called the “one China” policy “outdated, counterproductive
ON PAROLE: The 73-year-old suspect has a criminal record of rape committed when he was serving in the military, as well as robbery and theft, police said The Kaohsiung District Court yesterday approved the detention of a 73-year-old man for allegedly murdering three women. The suspect, surnamed Chang (張), was arrested on Wednesday evening in connection with the death of a 71-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙). The Kaohsiung City Police Department yesterday also unveiled the identities of two other possible victims in the serial killing case, a 75-year-old woman surnamed Huang (黃), the suspect’s sister-in-law, and a 75-year-old woman surnamed Chang (張), who is not related to the suspect. The case came to light when Chao disappeared after taking the suspect back to his residence on Sunday. Police, upon reviewing CCTV
Johanne Liou (劉喬安), a Taiwanese woman who shot to unwanted fame during the Sunflower movement protests in 2014, was arrested in Boston last month amid US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigrants, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said yesterday. The arrest of Liou was first made public on the official Web site of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Tuesday. ICE said Liou was apprehended for overstaying her visa. The Boston Field Office’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) had arrested Liou, a “fugitive, criminal alien wanted for embezzlement, fraud and drug crimes in Taiwan,” ICE said. Liou was taken into custody
TRUMP ERA: The change has sparked speculation on whether it was related to the new US president’s plan to dismiss more than 1,000 Joe Biden-era appointees The US government has declined to comment on a post that indicated the departure of Laura Rosenberger as chair of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT). Neither the US Department of State nor the AIT has responded to the Central News Agency’s questions on the matter, after Rosenberger was listed as a former chair on the AIT’s official Web site, with her tenure marked as 2023 to this year. US officials have said previously that they usually do not comment on personnel changes within the government. Rosenberger was appointed head of the AIT in 2023, during the administration of former US president Joe
RSS