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"Shanghainese are smoking and drinking too much, eating too much of the the wrong things, not exercising enough and becoming fatter." more ›

In our ongoing Threesday feature, Shanghaiist takes the time to count out three of....well, whatever catches our fancy that week. This week, it's China's giant babies. more ›

In just the last few years, China has been diagnosed as the "most diabetic country in the world" and seen 70 to 90 million of its people be categorized as obese. And Paul French, co-author of the book Fat China: How Expanding Waistlines Will Change a Nation has been documenting the country's rising weight. more ›

At 31-years old and 230 kg (about 500 lbs.), Liang Yong, China's fattest man, had to be hospitalized on May 26th due to severe heart, liver and kidney problems that caused fluid to build up inside his body. Liang was transported to the hospital in Chongqing with a cart after he had lost the ability to walk in April. more ›

This came out last week and I'm sorry to say that, a little bloated from all the "people in China are getting fat" news, I didn't watch it... until now. It's a shame - while a little wordy, it's a great nine-minute take on the country's obesity epidemic. Though they focus on China in general, almost all the scenes are shot in Shanghai - there's even an interview with our friend, Paul French, which references his new book Fat China. more ›

In case you didn't realize from the heightened rates of diabetes, cancer and obesity, but the physical condition of China's youth has been deteriorating. According to the country's National Physique Monitoring report, youth bodies have been on the decline for the past decade, with flexibility, "explosive strength," endurance, muscle power and vital capacities all sliding downwards. Yikes! Guess those morning exercises aren't as effective as you'd think. more ›

Already overflowing with superlatives, some of them not so great, China has now been declared the "diabetes capital of the world." A new report says that over 92 million adults in China have diabetes and nearly 150 million more are going to develop it. While, China's population tends to make numbers skew bigger than they would otherwise, check this percentage: That's 1 in every 10 adults here. Luckily, the solution for stemming this growing epidemic isn't that hard: walk more, eat less, China. more ›

Yes, yes, the Daily Mail is not perhaps the bastion of great journalism, but there were three things I found annoying in their story about Pang Ya, a two-year-old who weighs a whopping 91lbs. more ›

[h/t to Peijin Chen] more ›

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. more ›

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. more ›

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?). more ›