Beijing leads country in childhood obesity

From Beijing Today, January 18, 2008

[url=http://bjtoday.ynet.com/article.jsp?oid=27157824]Beijing leads nation in childhood obesity[/url]

Quote:By Annie Wei

A generation ago, obesity would have been an unimaginable problem in many areas of the country.

But, as the economy has grown, so have children’s waitlines.

According to a newly-released report by the Capital Institute of Pediatrics which began at the end of 2003, Beijing is home to 300,000 overweight and 230,000 obese children.

For the past 20 years, obesity in pre-school children has grown 500 percent for girls and 700 percent for boys, making Beijing the forerunner of childhood obesity in the country, according to the report.

The study was based on research conducted on 24,000 children from ages 1 to 18.

Diseases such as cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and a fatty liver once only found chronically in adult populations is now common among teenagers.

The main factors responsible for childhood obesity were poor diet, lack of exercise, poor sleep and an abnormal birth weight, Jie Mi, director of the epidemiology department of Capital Institute of Pediatrics, said.

The causes of a non-healthy lifestyle are complicated, Mi said. Some children are unaware of what is healthy, some have never had a healthy lifestyle and others abandon it due to school pressures.

“Western culture and affluence are responsible for many unhealhy eating habits, such as fast food, carbonated drinks and fried food,” Mi said.

Many people eat too much meat and too few vegetables, fruits and fibers. Children spend more time watching TV, playing computers and video games and travel by car rather than walk or exercise. Sleep quality is also heavily impacted by pressure to study.

Parents’ awareness of their children’s obesity is affected by their own education level, whether th themselves are obese or not, and the sex and age of their own children. Mi said educated parents who are not obese can better gauge their children’s situation. Local authorities are considering introducing BMI checks and weight management methods into schools to control the number of obese children.

On that note, I worry sometimes when I see my daughter's grandmother attempting to stuff her even when she's not hungry ... I think this must be an attitude developed when food resources were scarce and you had to eat everything in sight to stay healthy.