Obesity in China

fleshiness in chinaw be? From Wikipedia, the drop off encyclopedia Jump to navigation, search A McDonalds Chinese rising form meal. American unfaltering- fodder outlets have been blamed for the add in fleshiness in mainland chinawargon. 1 Obesity in china is a major wellness carry on according to the WHO, with overall evaluate of corpulency below 5% in the land, besides gr devourer than 20% in some cities. 2 This is a salient change from time when chinaware experienced famine as a result from ineffective agri heathenization plans such as the Great Leap Forward. 3 Currently, obesity in China is mostly confined to the cities where degenerate food finishing and globalization have workn over, in comparison to poorer rural beas. nonwithstanding this concentration of obesity, the sheer size of Chinas tribe means that over iodine fifth of all mavin billion grievous bulk in the world come from China. 4 Contents hide * 1 Issues * 2 Response and prospects * 3 Acti on and Policy * 4 See besides * 5 References * 6 Further reading * 7 External links edit IssuesStatistics from the Chinese wellness Ministry have revea direct that urban Chinese boys old age 6 be 2. 5inches taller and 6. 6 pounds heavier on middling than Chinese city boys 30 eld ago. A leading child-health researcher, Ji subgenus Chengye, has earthd that, China has entered the era of obesity. The cannonball along of wrickth is shocking. 1 Economic expansion and the increase in living standards as a result has seen food intake increase on ordinary in the cities and the growth of automation and enthrall has seen less tangible labor.Rapid motorization has drastically sinkd levels of cycling and walking in China. A 2002 underwrite has revealed a direct correspondence between ownership of motorized transport by households in China and increasing obesity related bothers in children and adults. 5 The introduction of processed foods through globalisation in China and the pu zzle of obesity is a recent phenomenon, as only 45 years ago the country faced starvation during the leadership of Mao Zedong. 1 til now while mal forage has been mostly ended in cities today, zillions of rural poor, especially in rural estern China are still a far phone call from the difficulty facing the cities. 1 The problem is affecting the young generations although some sources signalize the problem is worse with those between 35 and 59 where lots than half(a) are now punishing in cities, a figure corresponding to that in industrialised countries. 6 However, they state that the younger generations are progressively at assay. Today, 8% of 10- to 12-year-olds in Chinas cities are considered obese and an additional 15% are adiposis, according to Chinese Ministry of Education. 1 Similarly, A 2006 study conducted by University of southern calcium found that the average body fat of Hong Kong Children was 21 shareage, an alarmingly mettlesome number. 7 edit Response and prospects A KFC outlet in Hohhot, China According to Wang Longde, the Chinese vice health minister, the problem is that the population does non have sufficient awareness and lacks knowledge of nutrition and what constitutes a reasonable diet. 8 The government is attempting to reduce the problem with building much track downgrounds and passing a law with requires students to influence or play sports for an hour a day at school. 1 Chen Chunming, an expert at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and taproom has warned against the rapid growth of American fast-food outlets in China saying, Dont take children to eat fast food like McDonalds and KFC. 1 De-emphasis on sports also plays an essential burst in the rise of obesity in China. galore(postnominal) Chinese mickle take in at the way they advance in life is getting a give way education so they can get a disclose job. The heavy emphasis on schoolwork and the pressure to do so much into that direction keeps children away from play and from natural activity. 7 fill in farms, where children try to sweat off their excess weight have openhanded since the 1990s. In 2000, 100 million people were reported to suffer from elevated tide rip pressure and 26 million with diabetes. These figures were expected to double within a decade, with doctors warning that obesity could become Chinas biggest health threat for futurity generations. 69 edit Action and Policy Due to the current cultural views on obesity at that dedicate is a significant need for anti-obesity education.Obesity is often associated with prosperity, thus there is a need for a widespread attitude shift to rationalize the current rising range. Perhaps resulting from the famines of generations past, food, specifically lofty-fat foods, are now seen as a luxurious item. With exploitation incomes in Chinese society, families are not able to afford these dehydrated except highly desired foods resulting in increasing rates of consump tion of high-fat diets. 10 As a major subscriber to the spread of obesity, these high-fat diets are cr feeding a major in the public eye(predicate) health problem across the country.There are currently a few initiatives in place that could help combat this problem, but because of its magnitude, it is likely that more than(prenominal) improvements are needed. The Chinese feeding Society1 is providing nutrition education by creating dietary guidelines to help consumers recognise more healthy lifestyle choices. These guidelines become useful in assisting the population in adopting healthy eating habits which can be an important clogging measure against obesity. Additionally, the Chinese government is currently mandating programs in schools to deal with the growing problem of obesity in the younger generations. Eat Smart at School is a campaign that was launched during the 2006-2007 school year, which aims to cultivate healthy eating practices to kick upstairs lifestyle changes in the educational setting. This program is also an important aboriginal in teaching healthy lifestyle strategies that can promote long-term changes in these childrens lives. 2 Localizing community based interventions could help underwrite the large, diverse population in China. China is currently trying to lend oneself community based interventions through The National Plan of Action for Nutrition in China3.This demonstrates an extensive framework organizing food-based policies relating to the countrys nutrition and health issues. Some of the policies work towards promoting healthy diets and lifestyles while also providing incentives to food growers. Implementing across the nation social programs on public nutrition through mass media, public campaigns and community based promotions are potentially effective mediums towards combating obesity in China. Chinas centralized government has a unique big businessman to make rapid policy changes where they can enforce public nutrition policy and regulate food supply.The rapid growing market of fast food chains is a huge contributor to the increase in obesity rates in China. Potentially, a price policy could be a strategic model for raising the price on unhealthy foods in an attempt to shift food consumption patterns to accomplish health objectives and reduce the consumption of high fat foods. Through price policy, China can focus on controlling the external influence of outside(a) products on traditional Chinese dietary patterns and help cut the obesity trends and patterns due to the increase of westwardized foods and fast food chainsObesity in China Waistlines are Expanding Twice as Fast as GDP China is experiencing a record high obesity rate, which means millions are becoming obese each year. , by fling Patterson Date Published 04/08/2011 Photo by ernop. Used under Creative Commons. In the U. S, were used to interview about our massive weight crisis with more than 74 percent of adults age 15 and olde r classified as overweight, the American culture and media beautify have become fixated on finding parvenu diets, procedures, and lifestyle changes to enshroud the dilemma.But what is chop-chop becoming apparent is that we are not the only country coping with our expanding waistlines. In China, the prevalence of being overweight is actually dramatically outpacing the growth of its GDP. According to the existence Bank, Chinas US $4. 99 trillion GDP in 2009 was a remarkable 181 percent increase from its 2005 GDP (US $2. 75 trillion). The number of obese people in China is growing even faster. There are nearly 100 million obese people in China today, more than five times the number in 2005, when 18 million were obese. The definition of being overweight is having a body mass index of 25 or greater.According to the World Health Organizations Global Info Database, for those ages 15 and older, 45 percent of males in China and 32 percent of females were overweight, or an average of 38. 5 percent of the 2010 population. This is a sharp increase from the 2002 statistic of 25 percent. With an overweight piece of 38 percent and rising, mainland China is home to a staggering 380 million-plus people with weight problems. And studies show that the problem is becoming increasingly paramount among youth, and may largely define urban Chinas near-term hereafter.Robert Girandola, a professor of kinesiology at the University of Southern California, conducted a 2006 study, titled Prevalence of Obesity and Body Composition in Hong Kong Children, researching the body fat percentage of 3,000 nine-year-olds. He found that the average body fat of these children was 21 percent, an alarmingly high number. These are pre-pubertal children, and pre-pubertal you should not see numbers like that, says Girandola. He also added that the problem will only grow worse as these children begin to develop symptoms of the chronic diseases associated with obesity, including diabetes and high b lood pressure.In addition to diabetes and high blood pressure, other serious health implications related to obesity include a higher(prenominal) risk of cancer, heart disease and diabetes. The latter disease is rapidly becoming more prominent in China. A March 2010 New England Journal of Medicine study estimated that 9. 7 percent of the countrys population has diabetes, a figure that is close to that of the U. S. at 11 percent another American Diabetes Association study found similar rates in both countries. Also notable is that of these diabetes cases in China, 60. 7 percent went undiagnosed.The majority of these cases are Type II late onset diabetes, which is straight correlated with being overweight obesity has been found to contribute to slightly 55 percent of Type II diabetes cases. Source American Diabetes Association, The Associated straighten out Paul French, co-author of the recent book Fat China, which chronicles the growing problem of obesity in China, claims that the actual diabetes rate may be as high as 16 percent, with 150 million additional people categorized as pre-diabetic, putting them at a high risk for developing Type II diabetes. There are people in China who say with acupuncture and traditional medicine you can bring around diabetes, but there is no proof of that either, says French. Diabetes is some thing that once youve got it, youve got it and you have to manage it the rest of your life. According to a 1992 China National Nutrition Survey, the percentage of men and women classified as overweight, or with a BMI greater than 24, was 17. 4 percent. The government agenda at that time was to gauge the prevalence of scrubby individuals, but what they found at the other end of the spectrum ended up being a surprising trend that has continued ever since.The alike(p) survey conducted 10 years later in 2002 showed that 29 percent of individuals were overweight, a 66. 7 percent increase. What is causing the Chinese population to grow ov erweight at such an alarming rate? Contrary to the U. S. where obesity is concentrated more heavily among poorer people, Chinas obesity problem is largely defined by what French terms a wealth-deficit problem. Specifically, the richer you get, the fatter you are. In rural China, the prevalence of being overweight and having diabetes is naturally lower. However, in the cities, a larger number of people own cars and televisions.Not only are these luxuries symbols of wealth, but they also greatly decrease physical activity, resulting in higher rates of obesity and diabetes in urban areas. Athena Foong, an epidemiology researcher at the University of Southern Californias Institute for Global Health explains, Its a precise communal thing in Asia, if you see someone having that, you extremity to have that too so if theyre telling you that, we safe enjoyed a super duper meal at McDonalds and that becomes a fanciful thing to do, you want to do it too. But what about physical activity an d sports in China?Peaking during the 2008 Beijing Olympics, China has been making large strides on the internationalistic sports front. However, among the general population, this is not necessarily the case. As French says, With the Olympics in China, earlier than encouraging more people to take part in sport, it fundamentally sent out the message that sport was an elite activity, and if you play sports, you better win gold medals the idea of just a bunch of kids travel rapidly around playing games was considered a waste of time. Foong also adds that this de-emphasis on sports and physical activity starts from childhood, and carries on to later life. The only way people look at the way you advance in life is getting a better education so you can get a better job, and sports is not considered a job. Parents may dote on their only children, but they also hold them to high academic standards in order to fulfill a better life. Its not that they want to force their kids into dism ission to school, and then doing these extra school classes, and on the weekends having a tutor, explains Foong. Its just the pressure to do so much into that direction and away from play, from physical activity, from all that. This emphasis on schoolwork at the expense of play and organized sports parallels the rise in obesity in China. Foong adds that it is not yet as simple as telling parents, You guys can just dispense with worrying too much about getting good grades because thats the path that everyones already on that train has already leftover the station. Two or three generations ago, China suffered a nutrition challenge. Many people suffered malnutrition, went hungry and were underweight. Fast-forward to the present and conditions are swiftly becoming the opposite.In Chinas larger cities, where roads were once exclusively filled with bikes, cars squeeze the streets 24 hours a day. And in addition to having more cars, city streets are also now lined with fast food resta urants, the ubiquity of which is one cause of obesity in China. It is easy to find a local McDonalds, Pizza Hut or Starbucks ready to serve up fast food to the masses. In fact, Yum Brands, the parent company of fast food leaders such as McDonalds, Pizza Hut and KFC, opened more than cholecalciferol restaurants in China in 2009, and expects to one day have more than 20,000 restaurants there.Source National statistical offices, Euromonitor International Alongside Chinas meteorological economic rise and fast food market growth in the last two decades, the lifestyle of the Chinese people has changed dramatically. For example, aside from a greater array of food options, the Chinese are indulging their children because state policy has shrunk family sizes while economic progress has given urban families higher disposable incomes. Families and their children have become less active. These various changes have led to an equally fast climb in modern health problems.Obesity is a plague fac ing the developed world that leads to other complications such as diabetes and hypertension, which place an enormous pressure on the healthcare system. And in China, much like the rest of the world, the problem is only growing. What are ordinary Chinese doing to solve the problem of growing waistlines? Put simply, not much. Or at least not much that seems to be working. Says French, The three things that people are doing at the moment, none of these things are particularly sensible. Those three main things are unreasonable fat camps, which provide limited results for children using contrived and sometimes dangerous methods, unregulated and ineffective slimming pills that eliminate mainly body water, and enhancive surgery which treats the symptoms but not the problem. Solving the problem is not merely a matter of execution and practicality, but also a cultural and social one as well. One change that must take place is that people need to find ways to eat more healthily, especially since it is difficult to exercise enough to work off current foods.However, this is a lot easier said than done when the Chinese affinity for Western fast food brands is increasing, and on the flip side, Western companies are increasingly eager to tap into the Chinese market. Taking on a more active lifestyle is another important measure to help mitigate the problem. The solution is very simple, says Girandola. People have to be more active. Is that red to happen? I doubt it. People are not red to go back to bicycles again, not when they basically have a car. So what can one expect from China in the near future?There are many possible solutions, but when the public cares more about eating tasty and convenient food, climbing the socioeconomic unravel and relishing newfound wealth, nothing will come easily. Fast food is also not going to disappear. One example of this is a new trend that has emerged in Hong Kong, dubbed McWeddings, wherein local McDonalds restaurants provide wedd ing reply services to young couples. Over the long term, in is also needful to make school curriculum changes in schools to promote healthy habits. The key largely lies in children, who may be more able to flump up and maintain healthy habits than adults. Once you get overweight, its very hard to suddenly turn it around, explains Girandola. Thats why you got to solve it early people have to be proactive rather than reactive. As China rapidly modernizes, it will inevitably encounter the problems that first-world countries face. Unfortunately, the arduous path to relieving Chinas overweight problem and ensuing health issues will not be nearly as smooth as the road that got it there. Sky Patterson is a senior at the University of Southern California majoring in easterly Asian Languages and C