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Finns are the World’s Biggest Slimmers |
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By News
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Wednesday, 03 February 2010 |
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Finns are the world’s biggest dieters according to a survey published this week in the magazine Reader’s Digest.
In addition, the survey found that the Brazilians are the most figure conscious and the French and most inclined to blame fast food for making them overweight.
The sixteen nation poll was conducted last year by the USA-based company Synovate.
The survey found that eighty-three percent of Finns polled had attempted to lose weight at least once in their lives. Their nearest competitors – the Dutch – lagged far behind, with seventy-three percent having tried to shed a few pounds. People from India were the world’s worst dieters. Only twenty-one percent of Indians have tried to slim down.
Dr Kirsi Virtanen of the Finnish Obesity Association told 65DN, ‘One quarter of Finns are obese or overweight. We have had a lot of problems in the past, especially with heart disease in eastern Finland.’
‘It seems that Finnish genes make Finns prone to heart disease and, of course, obesity makes this even worse,’ the Turku-based doctor explained.
‘But I don’t know why Finns should want to diet more than other European countries,’ she added.
The survey also found that 83 percent of Brazilians thought society placed too much stress on having the perfect figure. This was followed by 68 percent of Indians and 62 percent of Americans. China topped the world in using pills to lose weight. Thirty-seven percent of Chinese claimed to have taken pills in order to lose weight.
The survey polled 16,500 people in Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, China, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Mexico, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Russia, Switzerland and the USA.
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