Bad eating habits cause health problems among Chinese

By Liu Zhiping (chinadaily.com.cn) Updated: 2014-07-25 20:30

Among many other factors, the change in Chinese people's eating habits over the past decades is taking its toll on people's health and contributes to increasing weight and obesity problems, according to Zhaoping Li, Professor of Medicine and director of the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of California, Los Angeles.

In 1991, among Chinese adults over 29-years-old, only 11.7 percent had a BMI above 25, but in 2009, the number increased to 29.2 percent, according to a study published in 2014 on Obesity Reviews, the official journal of the World Obesity Federation.

The prevalence of increasing weight and obesity is due to people eating too many calories, Li said during an exclusive interview with China Daily.

BMI is calculated by dividing a person's weight in kilograms by their height in meters squared to measure total body fat. A BMI between 25 and 29.9 is overweight. A higher BMI indicates a person is obese or extremely obese.

In the past, many Chinese were actually under nourished. There used to be widespread famine, high mortality rates and low life expectancy in China. People had a high grain intake, mostly whole grains, and little animal food. Less 10 percent of their food came from fat, according to Li.

However, since 1992, there has been a tendancy for people to drop their carb intake. Today, grain intake provides people the majority of their calories, but these are mostly refined grains.

People also have tripled their amount of animal foods and fat intake. In urban areas, it is common for people to eat too much animal-based foods, including pork, red meat, poultry, eggs, and fish.

In a word, what people eat now is high in fats, protein, sodium, and oils, but low in potassium and whole grains, Li noted.

Chinese people also have less steamed, baked or boiled food, they snack more and eat more processed foods and beverages with added sugar and salt, Li observed.

According to a recent study covering more than 1,000 Chinese under 40, nearly half of the respondents (48.6%) have snacks at least once a day, and their favorite choices are chocolate, candy and cookies.

"People should be smarter in choosing snacks to reduce the chance of overweight and obesity," Li said, adding that fruits and nuts should make up a larger portion of people's snack diet.

Nuts, such as California pistachios, are rich in plant protein, unsaturated fats, vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, and antioxidants, Li said.

"It is unhealthy to have too much processed food and drinks," Li said.