Fight obesity, the Thai solution

Thailand, known for its tasty food yet slimline people, is getting fatter - a trend that's creating a new market for high-tech weight loss therapies aimed at portly people who want to shed the kilos.

A commuter munching on a fatty breakfast roll at a busy downtown intersection need only glance up to see a slimming center billboard showing success stories in skimpy outfits flaunting their trim frames.

Across town, rotund Thais can begin the day strapped into rubber weight-loss suits at a high-tech gym, or sweating off the fat at one of Bangkok's many spas.

The boom in such treatments is partly driven by pressure to emulate noodle-thin movie stars, but also by a growing incidence of obesity. 'We eat more fat now than compared with the traditional Thai food, which has a lot of vegetables,' says Chaicharn Deerochanawong, consultant in diabetes who works for the Ministry of Public Health.

"In the past we did not eat a lot and we exercised a lot," says Chaicharn, who partly attributes the soaring obesity levels to the increase in Western-style fast food outlets.

A ministry study in 2003 found that 33.8 per cent of Thai females and 31.5 per cent of males were obese, representing a 50 per cent rise from 1998.

The study focused on body mass index, which assesses a person's weight relative to height. It used tougher standards than those employed by the World Health Organization, which means many of the people considered obese in Thailand might be merely overweight in other countries.

The problem in Thailand is similar to many other developing Asian countries - burgers, dough nuts and cream-topped lattes are replacing home-cooked meals, while a growing number of office workers are sitting immobile at desks all day.

This is causing waistlines to expand, but also creating a market for a huge number of slimming treatments and high-tech gyms.

One such gym is The Bodhi, which opened in December 2005 and at first glance looks more like the set of a science fiction film.

Tranquil music pipes into the low lit room, while Thais in rubber suits run on treadmills or lie on beds, their lower bodies encased in plastic. In the corner, a woman jiggles on a vibrating plate.