China Facing Obesity Epidemic
August 22, 2006
People in China are becoming overweight and obese at an "alarming" rate, a Chinese health professor has warned.
Writing in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), Professor Wu Yangfeng said the number of people living in China who are now classified as overweight or obese has risen sharply in a "relatively short time".China used to be seen as a nation with a lean population, but according to Yangfeng, this is now just a myth.
New figures show that a fifth of the world's overweight and obese people live in China.
According to a 2002 national nutrition and health survey,
nearly 15 per cent of Chinese people were overweight
and 2.6 per cent were classified as obese.
Additional surveys have also found that the number of
overweight and obese children (aged 7-18) living in
China increased 28-fold between 1985 and 2000.
Professor Yangfeng blames the Chinese obesity epidemic
on changing lifestyles, including changes to the traditional
diet and reduced levels of exercise.
He also suggests that the large rise in the number of
cars being bought in China has played its part.Production
of cars in China rose from 5,400 in 1980 to over 2 million
in 2003, according to the BMJ article.
As in other countries, China's epidemic of overweight
and obesity poses a considerable public health problem,
and it is becoming increasingly clear that we need to
act now to prevent any further increase," Professor
Yangfeng said.
"Ways of doing this are uncertain, but lifestyle
education could help as well as listing the prevention
and control of obesity as a goal in China's framework
and policy on health
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