Singapore, here I come

Departing tomorrow for a well-earned break with no set agenda.  One of the great attractions of Singapore is the shopping (but I'm becoming more of a minimalist, so not too much of that happening).  Another is the food - a cosmopolitan array of Asian cuisines and some hybrids too (like Nonya and Perankan).

I went online to check the obesity statistics for Singapore to see if it is "keeping up" with the rest of the world.  They definitely lag behind a lot of developed countries in the percentage of inhabitants who are overweight or obese.  Good on them.  

However, there was a footnote to these statistics.  Whilst their BMI (Body Mass Index) may be too low for obesity, it appears that quite a few Singaporeans are carrying too much body fat.  Confused?  BMI is useful for people with an average frame and musculature.  People with lots of muscle, for example will have a higher BMI and a table could rate them as overweight/obese, as muscle is heavy.  The opposite is also true.  Asians tend to have smaller, lighter frames than Caucasians and may be packing a load of body fat even if their weight and, therefore, BMI is not so high.

The message:  

BMI is not the "B" all and end all.  Its important to take body composition into consideration, too.