“Slim gyal, a bet you can’t do that, fluffy gyal a bet you can’t do that!” pulsed through the speakers as I surfed through YouTube. The lyrical debate between dancehall artistes Spice and Pamputtae about who has more sexual appeal and prowess, the ladies who are slim and trim or the heavier set ladies referred to fluffy, a term coined by popular radio host and local celebrity and a Magnum competition judge, Ms. Kitty.
Caribbean culture doesn’t shun fluffiness and the trend of calorie counting, fitness and health is not a much highlighted issue although it is an important one. This is largely due to cultural factors regarding aesthetics as Caribbean folk (especially Jamaican men) tend to like “roundness” which means that some fat is regarded as desirable especially around the hips, thighs and rear end. In the USA, it is quite the opposite as daily media bombards you with countless ads, magazines, infomercials, equipment and pills that are geared for weight loss and health, each promising to be the most effective and sometimes a miraculous transformation once started.
Being overweight is not healthy, but obsessing with getting slim is not healthy either and may lead to eating disorders such as bulimia and anorexia that are dangerous. It is worthy to note that being slim or skinny is not necessarily equivalent to being healthy or fit. There isn’t a one size fits all when it comes to body weight. Everyone has an ideal body weight and the first step is to know your status by using a simple method which is based on your height and your Body Mass Index. The Body Mass Index (BMI) is an indicator of how much fat you are carrying by multiplying your weight by 700 then dividing that result by your height in inches. Then divide that resulting number once more by your height in inches. The World Health Organization (WHO) standard of a healthy reading for BMI is 18.5 – 24.9. So whip out your calculator to find out your BMI status and find out if you need to get on that healthy track.
