Obesity prevails among children in rural China
- By Wu Jin
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E-mail China.org.cn, July 25, 2016
Yong Bao, a countryside boy in Henan Province, looked rather unhappy when he was sent again to a summer camp for children troubled by obesity.
The 8-year-old boy, who is living with his grandmother in a village, weighs 44 kilograms.
When Yong was five years old, his grandmother used to make a proud proclamation to her neighbors, "My grandson who can take in lots of food has a very good appetite. He needs three omelets when sipping a bowl of instant noodles."
But three years later, her pride has been substituted by her worry over her grandson's obese figure which is prone to the diseases caused by being overweight.
Research conducted by the Shandong Center for Disease Control and Prevention shows that the ratio of overweight boys rose from 0.7 percent to 16.4 percent from 1985 to 2014; meanwhile, the same ratio for overweight girls grew from 1.5 percent to 14 percent. The proportion of obese boys spiked from 0.03 percent to 17.2 percent and that of obese girls increased from 0.12 percent to 9.1 percent.
Obesity has particularly affected adolescents above the age of 12.
In recent years, the ratio of obese children has grown rapidly in the country.
Liu Lu, the second-rate nutritionist and director of the philanthropic department of Capital Healthcare and Nutrition Cuisine Society said, "We visited many villages and found that knowledge of healthy diets is extremely deficient and obesity among the children there is becoming more and more common."
Unlike their urban contemporaries, the children in the countryside suffering obesity have a different story.
The diets in rural villages are increasingly served with foods and desserts high in fat and calories which are different from the dishes in the past when the household income in rural areas was meager.
"In villages, people believe the dose of oil and meat will be conducive to one's health," Liu said. "Therefore, the high-calorie baked goods and soft drinks constitute one of the causes of children's obesity."
Additionally, the village groceries should be blamed for the cause of children's obesity by selling the snacks and drinks made from cheap and unhealthy ingredients such as pigments and additives.
According to "The Report of Nutrition and Health on Children and Adolescents in China" conducted by the Society for the Nutrition and Health of Chinese Students, villages in China are in need of education on nutrition and healthy diet as many villagers are totally ignorant of what nutrition is good to health.
A survey in Henan Province revealed that 78.92 percent of parents in rural areas know exactly what high-calorie foods are, but only 6.77percent of them restrict their children to having soft drinks and 2.75 percent stop their children from taking in meat excessively.
A village teacher in Pingyu County, Henan Province, said, "Many parents indulge their children by buying whatever they like, missing a chance to help their children have a healthier diet. But now, those healthy treatments are being replaced by soft drinks and fried snacks."
In accordance with the old tradition in the China's countryside where plump children are much favored, the grandparents often force their children to finish meals that may not be necessarily needed .
"Obesity preludes diseases," said Zhuang Hao, a doctor from the Henan Tumor Hospital.
"Without appropriate control and amelioration, the obesity will probably aggravate into diabetes and a chaotic metabolism."
Feng Li, the nurse from the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University said, "Parents should be the first advisors in tutoring their children to adopt a healthy diet, especially when they are six years old, during which the possibilities of obesity can be greatly reduced by effective and proper measures."
The school should also be a place for students to follow a healthy diet and gain a knowledge of nutrition.
At the same time, some experts also proposed the establishment of a nutrition day or week in the countryside to provide advice and suggestions for healthy foods and nutrition for the villagers in different age groups. The local governments are advised to purchase services from social organizations to improve the meals of rural children separated from their parents in rural homes.
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