The Health Of Nations – AsiaPac Wins TGI 'Olympics'

TGI has announced the winners of its own 'Olympics', measuring nations' general performance in terms of health, food and sports. Japan, China and Australia take the overall medals with France and Germany also among the individual medals.

TGI took the top 10 medal winners from the Athens 2004 Olympic Games and examined their behaviour in health, food and sports to find 'the nations with the healthiest and most balanced lifestyle'. It looked at preferred types of foods, concerns with calories, regular physical exercises, and interest in medical/health and fitness magazines.

Japan, Australia and France are the winners in the 'health category, taking Gold, Silver and Bronze respectively. The first two 'approach health in a proactive way' and watch what they eat while the French 'prefer to enjoy rich foods and exercise later to maintain their health and fitness'. Japan has the largest proportion of people who think that 'fast food is junk' (76%) and along with the Australians worries most about calorie content, while more than two thirds of the French population engage in physical activities regularly in a week.

Germany takes the Gold for the best diet, according to TGI, with France taking silver and China bronze. The study looked at types of dietary content and intake of mineral water intake and reveals that European countries eat foods with a high protein content: a combination of this with fondness for mineral water apparently lifts Germany and France high to the top of this category.

Notably, 'a high protein diet does not necessarily mean one with low-carb content'. In France for example, 94% include proteins in their nutrition but only 36% claim that pasta does not feature in their diets. In China and in the United States, the majority consume foods rich in vitamins such as vegetables.

The sports category sees Japan and Australia back in the top two places on the podium. Japan has the greatest level of sports participation, with the USA also high but let down by lack of interest in reading about sports in newspapers, leaving the second place to Australia and third to China. In these nations, approximately half are interested in reading about sports.

Japan takes the overall TGI Olympics gold medal based on a healthy lifestyle and high levels of interest / participation in sports. China gets the silver for her outstanding choice of diet and great involvement in sports. The bronze goes to Australia despite a low score in the food category.

The full overall table is as follows:

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.