Growing Obesity Problem in Asia

[Guest guest]

Hi, I'm a newbie, but I've been reading the messages in the CR

support group for awhile. I wanted to share this article with you

because it relates to the problem of over-eating in developing

countries. I can attest to this article firsthand since I spent 8

months in China and saw many fat little children and adults all over

the cities. There were Mc's & KFCs EVERYWHERE plus many other

knock-off fast food chains. Kids were tempted to eat fast food

because of the toys that came with the happy meals & adults came

there too because it was the " yuppie " or " chuppie " (Chinese Yuppie)

thing to do. I found it disappointing that they simplified the issue

to a case of malnutrition versus overnutrition in this article. I

wouldn't consider the fast food diet they're eating to be nutritious

at all, as I'm sure all of you would agree. I'm sad that there is

little to no nutritional education for the people living in

developing countries.

Anyways here is the article from the New York Times:

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March 13, 2003

Clustering in Cities, Asians Are Becoming Obese

By SETH MYDANS

ANILA, March 12 — A wave of obesity is sweeping through Asia as its

population shifts into vast new cities where the food is faster and

fattier and the lifestyle more sedentary.

As it did in the West a generation ago, obesity is bringing with it a

range of ailments led by cardiovascular disease. Once uncommon in

Asia, diseases of the heart and cardiovascular system are now the

continent's leading killers.

Most visibly and most dangerously for the future, obesity is

spreading among children, bringing a severe form of diabetes and

putting them at risk for years to come.

Known in Chinese as " xiao pangzi, " or " little fatties, " these roly-

poly children seem to be everywhere, the pampered victims of cultures

that prize them as emblems of affluence and well-being.

" We spoil him, " said Warisa Waid, a Thai teacher in Bangkok, of her

11-year-old son, Saharat, whose father is an ethnic Thai-

Chinese. " Whatever he wants, we give it to him. We don't care if it

is good or bad, we just feed him whatever he wants.

" Plus his lifestyle, " she added. " He spends most of his time in front

of the TV, playing video games and watching cartoons. "

When Saharat was younger, his mother said, he was small for his

age. " His father's family believes that being skinny is bad, so they

kept telling me, `Why don't you feed your kid more,' and, `What's

wrong with him.' "

Now he is too fat, she said, but his grandparents keep feeding him.

" He loves deep-fried stuff, and very minimal vegetables, " she

said. " Almost, I could say, he doesn't eat vegetables at all. They

give him whatever he wants — KFC and Mc's and pizza and all

that. "

In other words, a typical Asian city boy.

In cities, it is processed foods and fast foods rich with sugar and

saturated fats that are the most available and often the cheapest. At

the same time, there is much less demand or opportunity for physical

exercise.

Over and over, studies show much more obesity in cities than in the

countryside. In China, 5 percent of the population as a whole is

classified as obese; in its fast-developing cities, the number can be

as high as 20 percent.

Many of these are children, particularly the " little emperors " in

China, where government-mandated one-child families often cause

parents to be overindulgent.

The World Health Organization now reports that 6 out of 10 deaths in

the region are due to diseases that may be linked to obesity — heart

attacks, stroke, diabetes, hypertension, gallbladder disease and some

forms of cancer.

While obesity can be a crucial factor in all these ailments, it is

the direct cause of two-thirds of diabetes cases and one-fifth of all

heart disease. In most Asian countries, these diseases now take more

lives than do malaria, tuberculosis, pneumonia, malnutrition,

accidents and other more familiar causes of death.

The spread of obesity may prove more deadly here than in the West.

For the most part, these are not developed nations. Their health care

systems cannot cope with such complex diseases and their expensive,

long-term treatments.

" Asia is facing a nutrition crisis, and what is at stake is the

health of half the world's population, " said Neville Rigby, spokesman

for a London-based medical association called the International

Obesity Task Force.

This comes at a time when the rates of cardiovascular disease have

been dropping in many developed nations because of public education,

treatment and screening programs.

Unlike communicable diseases with their immediate symptoms, obesity

has crept up almost unnoticed and Asian governments are unprepared to

address it, said Dr. Gauden Galea, a Philippines-based expert with

the World Health Organization. " We are talking about numbers so huge

that people can't see them, even, " he said.

Overall statistics for the region have not been collated, he

said. " It's more like a jigsaw that emerges from many individual

studies that all fit together. "

Globally, more than one billion adults are overweight and at least

300 million of these are classified as obese. Asians are making up an

increasing proportion of these, he said.

A particular concern is the rapid spread among Asian children of what

was once known as adult-onset diabetes. The ailment, which rarely

affected children in the past, is so closely linked to obesity that

it has been nicknamed " diabesity. " In China, experts say, it has been

rising by 9 percent a year.

" We are faced with kids aged 10 to 12 who may require treatment for

the next 50 years with tablets or insulin shots, and start getting

heart attacks at age 25 to 30, " said Zimmet, director of the

International Diabetes Institute in Melbourne, Australia, at a recent

conference.

The World Health Organization, in a report last week, said 30 million

people in East and South Asia have adult-onset diabetes — one-fourth

of the world's cases in an area that is home to about half the

world's population. It projected that the number would rise to 130

million by the end of this decade, more than half the projected

worldwide total of 216 million.

The danger of cardiovascular disease is heightened in Asia by

widespread smoking, the third major risk factor, along with poor diet

and lack of exercise. In addition, Asians are more susceptible to

these ailments because they tend to store fat around the abdomen,

which puts a particular strain on the heart and cardiovascular system.

Experts set benchmarks using a " body-mass index " that involves height

and weight in a continuum from simply overweight to obese. As the

body-mass index rises, so do health risks. However, Asians encounter

health risks with lower body mass indexes and smaller waists than

Caucasians do.

The public health challenge is compounded by the fact that most Asian

nations are still dealing with the opposite problem — food shortages

in much of the population.

" More than any other region in the world, Asia faces two quite

different diet-related health problems: undernutrition and

overnutrition, " said the Asia Food Information Center, a private

group.

In Vietnam, for example, the government Center for Nutrition found in

the year 2000 that 12.5 percent of children in Ho Chi Minh City, the

former Saigon, were obese. At about the same time, the government was

announcing a plan to try to reduce the nationwide malnutrition rate

among children.

Experts say governments will be faced with difficult choices in

allocating health-care funds between those who eat too little and

those who suffer from eating too much.

Dr. Galea cautioned against blaming the overeaters for their

condition, which he said was as much the product of their environment

as an infectious disease would be. " When people move to cities they

are automatically at greater risk, " he said — the poor as well as the

more comfortably off.

It is not only the fast-food chains that have changed the Asian diet.

Milk, ice cream, cookies, soft drinks and potato chips — these once-

alien foods are as common in many parts of Asia now as in the West.

Meat and eggs are making inroads on rice and vegetables.

In the last two decades, Thais have doubled their annual intake of

sugar to 63.9 pounds per person from 27.9 pounds, according to a

study in 2001 by the Public Health Ministry.

" Sugar is everywhere in our lives, in food, desserts, soft drinks,

snacks and even infant milk formula, " said Dr. Supreeda Adulyanond of

the Thai Health Promotion Foundation.

The World Health Organization reports that obesity among Thai

children aged from 5 to 12 rose to nearly 16 percent from 12 percent

in just two years.

In Japan, researchers found that from 1970 to 1999 the prevalence of

obesity among 9-year-old boys had risen from 2.9 percent to 9.7

percent. Among girls, the number rose from 3.4 percent to 8.

In Malaysia, reports show that obesity among teenagers increased to 6

percent in 1997 from 1 percent in 1990.

In the Philippines, Dr. Augusto D. Litonjua, who heads the Philippine

Association for the Study of Overweight, a private group, said that

in an informal survey of doctors, 25 percent of patients were

overweight.

He blamed what he called " malling, " which he defined as spending the

day in shopping malls and eating at fast-food restaurants.

Even as they eat, however, many of these people long to be slim. As

in the West, the bloating of Asia has been accompanied by a slimming

of the ideal of beauty. As American fast-food chains spread through

Asia they are being followed by a proliferation of gyms, slimming

programs, diet pills and liposuction.

From Taiwan to Thailand, models and movie stars look like their

counterparts in the West, long-boned waifs, never satisfied that they

are thin enough.

" I think I am fat, " said Methinee Kingpayome, one of Thailand's most

famous models. " Although people think I am thin, I can always find

fat on my body. "

She added the obligatory disclaimer for people who make their living

from their good looks, " True beauty is not judged by physical

appearance but by the kindness of the heart. "

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