Dear MEL Topic Readers,
One in five Chinese children is overweight or obese, and the booming economy may be to blame, study reveals
That figure was only one in 20 children back in 1995 when China’s economy was just about to start booming. Back then, studies focused mainly on undernutrition as poverty was their main concern. But a new study evaluated the effect of economic growth on malnutrition in all its forms and found that Chinese children who were classified as overweight or obese exceeded 20 percent in 2014, a huge increase from just two decades ago.
During the time, more people moved to urban cities, kids spend more time at home playing games and staring at smartphones or at cram schools to study for exams, and families eat more packaged or delivery food and consume sugary drinks but walked much less, thanks to the rapid motorization and urbanization.
The problem is that such excess weight gain in childhood is often carried into adulthood and raise the risk of diseases like diabetes and cardiovascular problems.
It seems that China’s economic growth has also created a serious domestic problem.
Enjoy reading the article and think about the ways to keep children’s mental and physical health.
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