As Obesity Rates Rise, China Must Address Nutrition Through Policy Decisions

The Guardian: Fat China: how are policymakers tackling rising obesity?
Paul French, author

“…By 2012, China’s Ministry of Health estimated that as many as 300 million Chinese people are obese in a population of 1.2 billion. This total makes China the second most obese nation after the USA in numbers of overweight citizens. This rise in obesity translates into a major health care policy problem. … China is currently experimenting with community-based interventions through the National Plan of Action for Nutrition in China. … In the next decade, China’s health care planner will have to dig deep to fight obesity” (2/12).

The Guardian: China: nutrition guiding light or ticking time bomb?
Lawrence Haddad, co-chair of the Global Nutrition Report

“…Of grea[t] concern in the future are the rapid increases in overweight and obesity in China. … But it is not too late. China has the opportunity and the means to show the rest of the world how to slow and reverse the apparent tsunami of obesity. It has the opportunity because the problem is not yet unmanageable and its economy is strong. This generates policy possibilities. It has the means, because of the strong ability of the state to shape the environment to make it less ‘obesogenic’: to make healthy choices easier and more likely…” (2/12).

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