Menlo Park, Ca
Jan 25, 2014
The number of obese people in China is rising, People's Daily reported on Friday.
The number of obese people under the age of 18 has reached 120 million, according to the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the newspaper reported.
In 2010, a national survey showed the obesity rate for people aged over 18 was 12 percent and the overweight rate was over 30 percent.
In the past 10 years, the average weight increase in Chinese people has been almost equivalent to the average weight gain among people in Western countries over the past 30 years, said Wang Mei, a researcher at the China Institute of Sports Science.
Excessive eating and drinking caused obesity problem, which could increase the country's healthcare burden, said Ma Guansheng, an expert at the center.In some ways, teenagers in China and in the United States are similar with regard to obesity. Those who sleep fewer hours, and who spend more time in sedentary activities, are more likely to be overweight. But according to the report, published in the American Journal of Health Behavior, that's where the similarities end. In affluent Chinese families with educated parents, teens are more often obese;
China's robust economy is likely a prime factor. Newly prosperous
families are now able to buy foods that were unavailable to them just a
few years ago. So while teens report eating lots of veggies, they're
suspected of also eating larger quantities of many other foods,
including deep-fried, fatty meals. Meat consumption has also risen
sharply in China; in 1965, meat comprised just 6 percent of the Chinese
diet, but in 2005 that figure grew to 27 percent.There's fear of a sharp rise in obesity-related disease among the Chinese. Roughly 25% of Chinese adults are now overweight or obese. (In the United States, about two-thirds of adults share that distinction.) "China is now home to the world’s largest diabetic population, with 23 million diagnosed, up 40 percent from 2001," says Laurie Burkitt at The Wall Street Journal. "The U.S. is home to 20 million diabetics."
Increasing Prosperity to Blame
The study blames increasing prosperity and a growing middle class in China for the sharp increase in obesity levels. Specifically, it cites an increasingly sedentary lifestyle, increased ownership of cars, mechanized agriculture and a shift to a more Western diet as contributing factors.Kara Reed
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