OBESITY IN CHINA

BEIJI NG (Reuters) - Newly rich China, where the wealth gap is expanding year by year, has more than twice as many obese people as it has people living in extreme poverty, Xinhua News Agency said on Monday. Changes in traditional diet, including a new fondness for Western fast food and a sharp rise in the use of cars have been blamed for obesity in China, where famine and chronic malnutrition caused the deaths of millions in the 1950s. ‘While 24 million people in China live in serious poverty and suffer from malnutrition, 60 million Chinese are obese,’ Xinhua, deputy director with the State Food and Nutrition Consultant Committee, said. ‘An increasing number of Chinese people are eating more fat and junk food but less grains and vegetables, leading to a high number of cases of high blood pressure and diabetes,’ Pan was quoted as saying. Statistics show that about 160 million Chinese people suffer from high blood pressure and 20 million have diabetes. The widening wealth gap is also to blame for regional diet difference. Narrowing the regional income gap will help improve the diet of citizens in poverty-stricken areas and make them more healthy.