A study conducted by the country’s National Health Commission on Wednesday revealed that more than half of Chinese adults are now considered overweight. The rate of obesity in Chinese adults has more than 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 obese. In a country of 1.4 billion people, which is more than the entire population of the US – more than half a billion people.
That’s a sharp increase over the last two decades. In 2002, 29.9% of Chinese adults were overweight, including obese. In 2012, that figure rose to 42%, according to previous reports by Chinese health officials.
“Residents of our country face a serious problem of overweight and obesity. Weight and obesity rates are steadily rising among residents of urban and rural areas and all age groups,” said Lee Bin, deputy director of the National Health Commission. Wednesday news conference.
That is partly due to the drastic change in diet and eating habits brought about by the rapid economic development of the country. In the 1950s and ’60s, famine killed an estimated 45 million Chinese people. And until 1993, people had to use food vouchers distributed by the government to get staples like rice, oil, eggs and meat.
The days of food are long gone. Now, Chinese people are free to eat large quantities of their choice, and the country’s new wealth will bring more nutritious and calorie-rich food to the dining table.
The increase in spending power has also raised the issue of food waste, which Chinese President Xi Jinping has described as “shocking and tragic”. On Tuesday, a draft law on food waste prevention was introduced in the country’s National Assembly.
An increase in the rate of overweight and obesity puts an additional burden on public health. Being overweight increases the risk of serious diseases and health conditions, including high blood pressure, diabetes, coronary heart disease and stroke. Says the centers.
Zhao Wenhua, chief nutritionist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said the rate of overweight and obesity in China is rising rapidly, which is widespread and affects all groups of the population. This leads to big challenges.
According to the World Health Organization, at least 4 million people die each year as a result of being overweight or obese.
Worldwide obesity is also on the rise, nearly tripling since 1975, according to the WHO. In 2016, 39% of adults worldwide – or more than 1.9 billion people – were overweight, with more than 650 million obese.
According to the CDC, in the United States, between 2015 and 2016, in the United States, .61. adults% were classified as overweight, obese.
But, China has a stricter measure than global standards. The WHO considers body mass index (BMI) – weight ratio height height – over 25 and over 30 obese. In China, a BMI over 24 is considered overweight, and over 28 are obese.
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