Results tagged “obesity”

[h/t to Peijin Chen]

We've talked a lot about the growing issue of Chinese obesity in the past few days, and Al-Jazeera seems to agree with us that it's a serious problem. This video (see the second part, after the jump) delves into Beijing's changing culinary culture and how China's booming economy is bringing a corresponding weight jump, with 200 million Chinese reported as obese. From street food to fast food, Al-Jazeera takes a look at why the Chinese are getting so fat. Between this and cancer, looks like they have a lot to worry about.

Caijing Magazine shares some startling statistics on cancer in China, where smoking, poor diet, water pollution and environmental problems have caused the nation's cancer death rate to rise 80 percent in the past 30 years. The statistics come from an exhaustive survey conducted by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Science and Technology. According to the survey, cancer is now accountable for 25 percent of all urban deaths and 21 percent of all rural deaths. Although the rising cancer death rate has long been attributed to an aging population, this recent survey still found that the nation's lung cancer death rate rose 261 percent after adjusting statistics for age.

From France24:

Twenty-five years after China opened up to the west the Chinese are paying a price. Today the country has the fastest-growing obesity rate in the world and one quarter of its urban youth is overweight.

economic dominance, much of the world is coming around to recognizing the nation as the most likely next world superpower. But China may be on track to overtake the U.S. in more than just production and pollution. A new study in the July/August issue of the journal of Health Affairs reports that the nation's obesity levels are rising dramatically. More than a quarter of adults are either overweight or obese, and the health problem is increasing at a rate faster than all other countries except Mexico (sour cream on those nachos?).