A CHILD OBESITY PROBLEM

The November 29, 2010 issue of Maclean’s Magazine carried an article titled “A Child Obesity Problem.” The ever-widening waistline in the larger centers in China is causing worries regarding the levels of obesity which has risen by 150 percent from 1996 and 2006. However, the country is still struggling with childhood undernourishment in poorer rural areas. The traditional culture equates “Fat Baby” as “Healthy Baby” but not in booming and northern and coastal regions. In Shanghai over one third of the children are overweight or obese.

China’s one-child per family has led families (mainly grandparents) to spoil and over-feed little ones. Chinese officials are well aware that the Western-style overall population is obese. Because of their sedentary lifestyle officials as well as parents, are taking a drastic approach to the problem, including military style fat camps and one-hour-a-day physical exercise which includes mandatory physical exercise in schools.