Japanese officials bare bellies online to fight obesity

0 Comments | AFP, December, 2006

TOKYO (AFP) — Two middle-aged Japanese bureaucrats showed their bulging bellies to the nation as they kicked off a diet blog as part of a national campaign to fight growing obesity. Vice Health, Labor and Welfare Ministers Noritoshi Ishida and Keizo Takemi were both pictured on their blog lifting up their white shirts as female dieticians measured their flab.

The duo will keep regular commentary and show their measurements over the next six months as they try to trim down. Both have been diagnosed with metabolic syndrome, in which people have too much fatty tissue around the abdomen. "I have given myself a challenge and decided to open up the diary of my struggle," Ishida wrote on the "Metabo Busters" blog. The 55-year-old said he would try to walk for 10 minutes a day,...