More than half of Chinese adults are now considered overweight, according to a study by the country’s National Health Commission. Obesity rates among Chinese adults have also doubled in less than two decades, from 7.1% in 2002 to 16.4% this year.
According to the report, 50.7% of Chinese adults are overweight, including those who are obese. In a country of 1.4 billion, that means more than half a trillion people, more than the entire American population.
This is a sharp increase in the last two decades. In 2002, 29.9% of Chinese adults were overweight, including the obese. In 2012, that figure rose to 42 percent, according to previous reports released by Chinese health authorities.
“Residents of our country face a serious problem of overweight and obesity. The rates of overweight and obesity among residents in both urban and rural areas and of all age groups are constantly increasing,” he said. Li Bin, deputy director of the National Health Commission. Wednesday press conference.
This is partly due to the huge changes in diet and eating habits brought about by the country’s rapid economic growth. During the 1950s and 1960s, it was estimated that 45 million Chinese starved to death. And until 1993, people had to use government-distributed food vouchers to get commodities such as rice, oil, eggs and meat.
The days of food shortages are over. Now, the Chinese can eat largely according to what they choose, and the country’s new wealth has provided the dining room with increasingly nutritious, high-calorie foods.
The increase in purchasing power has also given rise to the problem of food waste, which Chinese President Xi Jinping has described as “shocking and distressing”. On Tuesday, a bill on the prevention of food waste was presented to the country’s national legislature.
Rising rates of overweight and obesity place an additional burden on public health. Being overweight increases your risk of serious illness and health conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes, coronary heart disease, and stroke, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Overweight and obesity rates in China have risen rapidly, with a high prevalence and affect all groups of the population. This poses huge challenges,” said Zhao Wenhua, chief nutritionist at the Chinese Center for Control and Prevention. Diseases.
According to the World Health Organization, at least 4 million people die each year from overweight or obesity.
Worldwide, obesity has also been on the rise, almost tripling since 1975, according to the WHO. In 2016, 39% of adults worldwide (or more than 1.9 billion people) were overweight, including more than 650 million who were obese.
In the United States, 71.6% of adults were classified as overweight, including the obese, between 2015 and 2016, according to the CDC.
But China has a tougher measure than world standards. The WHO considers that the body mass index (BMI) – a relationship between weight and height – of more than 25 is overweight and more than 30 obese. In China, a BMI over 24 is considered overweight and those over 28 are obese.
.Source
Related
