HONG KONG – More than half of China’s adult population is overweight or obese, according to a new government report released on Wednesday.
Obesity rates in China have doubled in two decades, and health officials are warning of an increase in chronic diseases like diabetes, hypertension and cancer.
The report found that 34.3 percent of adults were overweight and 16.4 percent were obese. He analyzed a group of 600,000 Chinese residents between 2015 and 2019. In comparison, 30% of Chinese adults were overweight and 11.9 obese in 2012, according to a government survey released in 2015.
“The unhealthy lifestyle of residents is still common everywhere,” said Li Bin, deputy director of the National Health Commission of China, during a news conference on Wednesday. Most families use salt and oil in quantities that exceed recommended guidelines, he said, and people are increasingly turning to processed foods and fatty meals in restaurants.
In the past, China’s health initiatives have emphasized the importance of exercise rather than reducing consumption of junk food and soft drinks, partly due to the influence of the Coca-Cola lobby on obesity-related research and dietary regulations.
But on Wednesday, Li cited sugar-sweetened drinks as one of the causes of childhood obesity. “The frequent consumption of sugary drinks by children and adolescents has been presented as an important problem”, he said. According to the most recent data, 19 percent of children aged 6 to 17 are overweight or obese.
Li said officials would take steps to stem the rise in obesity and chronic illnesses with a new initiative called “Healthy China 2030”. Zhao Wenhua, chief nutritionist at the China Disease Control Center, said the authorities would encourage manufacturers to produce snacks and drinks low in fat and sugar.
A bill that aims to discourage food waste was submitted to the country’s main legislative body for review on Tuesday, the China News Service reported. The provisions include punishing social media influencers who make money by posting videos of themselves eating excessive amounts of food online with fines up to $ 15,300, and requiring restaurants to offer a variety of portions.
The country’s leader, Xi Jinping, launched a campaign against food waste this summer, seeking to eliminate an ingrained custom of ordering excessive dishes in restaurants as a show of wealth and generosity. Although the authorities claim that there is no imminent food shortage, the “clean plate” initiative was initiated after heavy floods destroyed agricultural communities and food prices rose steadily.
Although Chinese officials often cite the government’s success in reducing hunger over the past three decades, according to the World Food Program, nearly 151 million Chinese still suffer from malnutrition. China’s rapid development, however, is largely responsible for a worldwide shift in which obesity and related diseases now kill more people than malnutrition.
Obesity statistics in China are part of a global pattern. Obesity among American adults has increased by 12.4% in the past 18 years, with 42.4% of adults in the United States now living with the disease. Obesity has almost tripled worldwide since 1975, according to the World Health Organization.
Obesity has also emerged as an important indicator of the severity of coronavirus symptoms in patients with both diseases. A recent study from China that looked at a group of 112 patients with Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, found that of the 17 patients who died, 15 were overweight or obese.