|
Date:
16/06/2000
UK
male posture regresses towards Neaderthal status
The
average British male cuts a sad figure - stooped, round shouldered and pot
bellied. He knows he's overweight but has no conception of the need to change
his diet. These are the unflattering findings from a study by Nottingham Trent
University in the English midlands, about how diet and lifestyle are affecting
posture. Clare Choak reports on the demise of the male waistline in the UK.
British mens' figures are regressing and beginning to ape their prehistoric
ancestors. Mr. Average wears trousers that are too tight, trying to squeeze his
90 centimetre stomach into trousers with an 85 centimetre waist. Unless the
British male shapes up, his waist will have grown to 100 centimetres by 2002,
according to this new lifestyle research. Professor Steven Gray from Nottingham
Trent University says the way mens' bodies are changing doesn't paint a pretty
picture. Steven
Gray said: Our
general lifestyle means that we're not nearly as upright as we could be and
maybe should be. And the junk food and the sort of inherent laziness that we
have got is meaning that we've got little more round shoulders and certainly
more of a paunche than I think we should have from a health point of view, let
alone aesthetics He
believes that men are deluding themselves about the shape of their bodies. Six
out of ten volunteers failed to correctly identify themselves in three
dimensional images, all choosing slimmer bodies than their own.
|