Chinese waistlines expanding
Si TingtingChina Daily  Updated: 2005-03-26 05:45

One sure way to monitor China's rapid economic development over the past couple of decades is to check the average person's belt size.

A dramatic rise in obesity sweeping the nation is certainly one of the most striking, albeit ironic, examples of prosperity.

A survey jointly released by the Ministry of Health and the State Statistics Bureau last October shows that, in China's big cities, 30 per cent of the total population is now overweight, as compared with 21 per cent in 1992. And, of the overweight, 12.3 per cent belong to the corpulent group which accounted for only 6.2 per cent in 1992.

Chinese health professionals are trying to promote public awareness of this mind-boggling trend. If belt buckles continue to be loosened without interference, the growing waistlines will give rise to all sorts of social problems and in due course, the nation will perhaps pay a dear price, said Professor Weng Weiliang of the Chinese Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine, whose expertise is in obesity-related health problems.

A higher quality of life, as these health professionals point out, should be one with healthy habits and healthy foods, and one in which work, exercise and other activities are in good balance.

If today's young people go over the pictorials published 20 years ago, in the early 1980s or late 1970s, or check their families' photo albums from about that time, they would be surprised to find very few figures, if any, that can be called chubby.

In fact, the majority of middle-aged Chinese spent their childhoods in poverty, or at least suffering from a lack of variety in daily food supplies. So it is not hard to understand why there are so many heavy people around nowadays. With fatter pocketbooks, they spend much greater amounts on the items they used to think nutritious, but that are actually often the high-calorie and fat-laden ones.

The Chinese Nutrition Society, a unit of the China Science and Technology Association, recommends daily consumption of vegetable oil of just about 25 grams. But a survey shows that an average Beijinger takes in a staggering 83 grams of vegetable oil per day on average.

According to a recent report by the Earth Policy Institute, a Washington-based environmental research group, shows that China's meat consumption last year amounted to 64 million tons, nearly doubling since the 1980s. The explosive increase of greasy foods being consumed has changed the look of Chinese who once were more accustomed to lean diets.

Furthermore, the rule of "survival of the fittest" in workplaces, which is often a euphemism for competition and longer working hours than others, is exerting greater pressure on individuals.

The mal-functioning labour unions in companies connive at the managers' infringement on the Labour Law, which stipulates that the hours of a work week is 40 hours under normal conditions. But one survey by Jiangsu provincial statistics bureau found that in Jiangsu Province, one of China's champions in economic growth, the average is 48.59 hours.

Heavier than ever workloads have driven more and more people out of their home kitchens to canteens and fast-food restaurants for which cost control is more often a higher priority than nutrition and freshness. These, and the hasty eating (such as less chewing time for every mouthful of food), add fuel to society's obesity problem.

This is a new dimension of inequality in society. When only the rich people can afford the precious time to burn off calories and build muscles in fitness salons, the poor and those working under heavy pressure have little time for even a relaxing meal.

The weight standards should be tighter for China, judging from Asian people's physical structure, eating habits and lifestyles, Weng says.

Health problems are the natural results of being obese. Professor Chen Chunming, director of International Life Science Institute Focal Point in China, warned those Chinese with growing waistlines to be on guard against diabetes. As almost every Chinese from the obese group is characterized by a bulging belly, chances for them to develop diabetes are several times higher than those of Westerners.

Li Chunsheng, a professor of Xi Yuan Hospital of the Chinese Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine, warned: "Compared with people of standard weight, those who are 30 per cent heavier are likely to die four years earlier."

To complicate the situation, the yearning for quick weight control solutions has brought in a booming market of products that may do further harm to people's health.

Lots of anti-obesity producers are exerting all their efforts to advertise their magic drugs which could burn out all the unnecessary (sometimes necessary) fat in days, yet turning their eyes away from serious diseases like anorexia, amnesia, shortness of strength and stomach ailments.

While public health experts recommend only a few solutions, such as yoga, massage and acupuncture, they are telling the public not to trust drugs labeled "over-night-slim" cures.

Li also tries to caution people against driving away excess weight with physiotherapy measures or drugs, all of which go against the body's natural growth and are health-endangering.

Only with guaranteed leisure time can people exercise on a regular basis. Therefore, the government should be strict with companies violating the Labour Law. Additionally, body building markets should be better regulated to ensure that body building training courses are professional and health-oriented, and harmful fat-burning anti-obesity drugs are cleared out.

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