SINGAPORE - In the early 1990s, when I was a young plastic surgeon working in the Singapore General Hospital, I was exposed to anthropometry for the first time.

This is the systematic recording and analysis of body measurements such as the length and size of individual body parts like the nose, eyes or limbs - or the relationship of height to weight, which has popularly become known as the BMI or Body Mass Index - and upon which we can now make certain predictions about a person's health and his propensity for disease.