Babies are born bigger, kids are more obese and the percentage of
people with hypertension (high blood pressure) is nearly twice the
national average.
Nutritionists at an ongoing international forum that opened last
week warned Shanghai citizens are piling on the weight, in a city
that used to be known for its slender women and trim men.
Dean Eileen Kennedy, from the Nutrition School of Tufts
University in the United States, said research showed Shanghai
newborns often weigh 4 kg or more. The national standard ranges
between 2.5 kg to 4 kg.
About 16 percent of kids in Shanghai aged between seven and 17
are overweight, while another 12.5 percent are obese. In the 18 and
above age group the figures are, respectively, 29 percent and 4
percent. The percentage of obese kids is nearly three times the
national average.
As a consequence of being overweight, 30 percent of Shanghai
residents suffer from hypertension while the country's average is
nearly 18 percent.
Over the past 20 years, Shanghai citizens' daily intake of
edible oil has grown from 28g to 50g. The percentage of meat in the
diet has expanded from 10 percent to just under 26 percent.
But cereal products, which were the staple food two decades ago,
constitute 39 percent of a meal.
?Also, some people are taking an excess of vitamin pills,
which Kennedy said could be dangerous, because they cannot as
readily absorb natural vitamins from food.
A recent survey by the Shanghai statistics bureau found the
city's kids spend more time on computers and eating junk food than
playing sports.
Half of the city's primary and high-school students spend less
than one hour in the playground or doing sports activities. At
least 60 percent of kids eat junk food, the survey concluded.
Kennedy said that advice on how to stay healthy needed to be
made public, especially for expectant mothers who eat as much as
possible to have a big baby. Being fat as a baby can lead to health
problems later, she added.
(China Daily September 12, 2007)
