As the media reports, Australia is turning into a ‘fat nation’ as we have more people becoming overweight per capita than any other nation in the world. Now, if you have ever been to the United States, you may be in agreement with me that we have a very long way to go before we reach the pinnacle heights they have reached for themselves in this department.

Sure, we are starting to see more Australians who have needed to increase their belt size over the years, but to say that we are a ‘fat nation’, and ‘the fatest nation on earth’ is a slight exaggeration which the media is obviously well known for. But what is ‘Fat’? The medical industry uses the Body Max Index (BMI) scale to rate whether someone is overweight, or obese. You can easily enter your height/weight ratio here to see where your BMI sits. This can be a pretty good indicator of whether you are in the ‘danger zone’ in regards to your cardiovascular status.

Life insurers take BMI quite seriously when assessing an application for life or disability, or Income Protection. Mainly because studies show that the heavier you are, the more prone to disease and illness you are. Of course, that’s not rocket science, but people who are overweight are still shocked when the insurer picks up on this. Basically, the Life Insurance company will put what they call a ‘Loading’ on your premium if they decide you are outside the scales of normality.

This means that if you were going to pay $50 month for life insurance, and you get hit with a 100% loading, your premium will go to $100 month. You can always reduce the amount insured to bring the premium down, but this is obviously no good if you still require that particular amount of cover. I will write a little bit more about the healthy alternative to eating in a few posts, and gather some great links for you to go to. We will also hopefully have some guest bloggers who are experts in the area of nutrition and health to give you free advice on getting healthy.

PD