May

21

China's child obesity problem 'ballooning' - AFP(Childhood Obesity News)

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Almost one in five children under seven is overweight and more than seven percent are obese, according to a study of the Chinese National Task Force on Childhood Obesity, presented at the sidelines of the annual meeting of the World Health Organisation. What tipped the scales were social changes that came along with the transformation of the country since it opened up economically at the end of the 1970s. The adoption of Western couch-potato style of life in the cities is the problem, as parents feed their children with fat and sweet food, according to the scientist. Ding said it was hard in the beginning getting support to conduct the study, the first of which was done in 1986, and later in 1996 and 2006, each time showing worsening results. Since then, the Chinese authorities have acknowledged the problem as a health challenge, but resolving the problem of malnutrition “remains the number one problem for the government”, said Ding. Read Childhood Obesity

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