Healthy eating habits making Chinese youth overweight????

[Guest guest]

Overweight Chinese youth have a greater intake of vegetables, and a lower

intake of sweets and fast food than did those who were not overweight,

recent research suggests.

The research was conducted at the Keck School of Medicine at the University

of Southern California to examine the odds of

overweight<http://www.foodnavigator.com/content/search?SearchText=overweight & Fro\

mNews>and

related correlates in Chinese adolescents.

*“In contrast to most findings in studies carried out in Western cultures,

we found that frequent consumption of

vegetables<http://www.foodnavigator.com/content/search?SearchText=vegetables & Fro\

mNews>was

actually related to greater odds of overweight in Chinese youth,”

* the researchers said.

*“Diets rich in fruits and vegetables have generally associated with lower

caloric intake in studies conducted in the West. However, our findings might

be explained by differences in

cooking<http://www.foodnavigator.com/content/search?SearchText=cooking & FromNews>\

methods,”

* the researchers said.

According to the researchers, in China, the two most common methods of

cooking vegetables are deep-frying and stir-frying, both of which involve

generous use of oil, which could result in higher intake of energy.

The study is published in the July 2011 issue of the *American Journal of

Health Behavior*.

*Data collection*

The cross-sectional data was collected from a baseline survey in seven

cities across China, where a total of 9,023 students and their parents

filled out questionnaires prepared by the researchers.

The questionnaires asked vital questions of the sampled respondents

regarding their sedentary behaviour, physical activity, sleep duration, self

perception, age and school level, BMI and weight status, parental income and

education levels.

Under the survey, researchers measured dietary intake during the last month

by food frequency items. Five food items were included in the current

analyses to assess the consumption of different foods.

This included vegetable intake (fresh or cooked vegetables), fruit intake

(fresh fruits including fruit juice), sweets intake (desserts, ice cream,

candy, or soda), snack intake (potato chips, corn chips, and tortilla

chips), and fast food intake (Mc’s, KFC, Pizza Hut etc).

Researchers found that mean frequency of vegetable consumption per week

during the past 30 days for the sampled respondent was 7.54 times; fruit,

6.50 times; sweets, 4.06 times; snack, 3.11 times; and fast food, 0.43

times.

The researchers further found that those who were overweight consumed

vegetables and fruits more frequently, and consumed sweets, snacks, and fast

foods less frequently when compared to those who were not overweight.

* “Interestingly, we also found that overweight Chinese youth reported a

lower frequency of sweets intake and fast food intake,”* they said.

*Staples*

The traditional Chinese diet consists of a variety of high-glycemic

carbohydrates with rice as the staple grain, they added, which favors weight

gain and obesity.

Overweight youth might be consuming greater amounts of foods (rice and

noodles) associated with increased caloric intake and increased adiposity,

according to them.

*“However, intake of these high-glycemic and possibly obesogenic foods was

not measured in the current study. In addition, information related to

portion size was not collected, which might be another crucial determinant,”

* they said.

Another potential explanation is that overweight youth might tend to

underreport their intake of sweets and fast food, types of high-energy-dense

foods, due to social desirability, the report said.

Source *American Journal of Health

Behavior<http://png.publisher.ingentaconnect.com/content/png/ajhb/2011/00000035/\

00000004/art00006>

*

Volume 35, Number 4, July 2011 , pp. 438-446(9)

* " Correlates of Overweight Status in Chinese Youth: An East-West Paradox " *

Authors: Hsu, Ya-Wen; , C. ; Chou, Chih-Ping; Unger,

B.; Sun, Ping; Xie, Bin; Palmer, a H.; Gallaher, Peggy E.; Spruijt-Metz,

Donna

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