Nearly 1 in 5 Chinese overweight or obese

[Fountain79]

HONG KONG - Nearly one in every five of China's more than 1.3 billion people are overweight or obese and the problem is getting worse among children, especially boys, according to a study.

The study, to be published in the Aug. 19 issue of the British Medical Journal, found that 10 million children from the ages of 7 to 18 were overweight in 2000, up 28 times from 1985.

Four million children were obese in that same age group in 2000, four times more than in 1985.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14407969/

Interesting that this happened so fast.....

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

1. I noticed that a few years ago...

American dieticians recalibrated their measure of what constitutes "overweight." Basically they came up with a small formula wherein you plug in your height and get out a correct weight. No mention of muscle mass, etc. So overnight I went from OK to overweight. Shortly there after everybody started talking about how overweight Americans are getting. Hmm.

[KurtNYC]

9. BMI was created by a Belgian in 1830

and most body builders should know that it doesn't apply to them but do you really belive people aren't generally heavier today than 20 years ago?

A comparison of the 1977-78 and 1994-96 food intake surveys conductedby the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reveals that reported consumption increased by 268 calories for men and 143 calories for women between the two periods. This increase is more than enough to explain therise in the average weights of men and women over the same period.

http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:XnmUqQd0-tIJ:www.ers.usda.gov/publications/efan04004/efan04004b.pdf+increase+in+calories+1980&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1

And that is just based on what people "reported"; not how much they really increased their intake.

[shain from kane]

2. This could effect the rotation of the Earth and lead to global warming.

[MrCoffee]

3. Cool, McDonalds won the Globalization War.

[marions ghost]

4. Surprising--I usually think of Chinese

as being active and healthily slim in general. I wonder if this problem has anything to do with the spoiling of only children, since Chinese restrictive birth control laws? Or maybe just more affluence, more TVs, computers and video games?

[kurth]

8. More calories from protein and fats in their diet

compared to the lean days under Mao.

[napi21]

5. I didn't read the article, but I BET it has something to do with

the USA involvement there!

[cigsandcoffee]

10. I don't see how the Chinese becoming a pack of chubbsters....

...is our fault. They could just go on diets.

[napi21]

12. LOL, so could Americans, but they don't! n/t

[shain from kane]

6. More chins for the Beijing phonebook.

"Yo' mama so fat, she got more Chins than a Chinese phonebook."



Edited to add reference.

[KurtNYC]

7. Seems to play against the genetics theory

more likely changes in diet are behind the increase. Also the one child policy means there are fewer people at the dinner table these days.

[shain from kane]

11. Why don't they share it with the North Koreans? They're starving.

If Mama Cass had shared that ham sandwich with Karen Carpenter, they would both be alive today.