Source: Shanghailist

Shanghai Daily reports that Shanghai’s children are becoming “fatties.” The unintentional comedy scale of this article is high due to the English word choice of the authors – see the Shanghailist article “Shanghai Daily: Too many fat kids eat too much fast food, sit on fat butts” for a full comedic wrap up. Equally important, the information contained within the article is a good jumping off point for a serious conversation in obesity in China.

According to the article, the 2009 Chinese Child Nutrition and Health Report concluded that 12 million Chinese children are either overweight or obese, which accounts for half of the worlds overweight and obese children.  The rate is apparently on the increase, having tripled in the past ten years within the 7-17 age group.  What’s more “The rate of obesity among Chinese adults has increased from 6 percent to 22.8 percent in the 10 years from 1982 to 2002.”

To put this last number in perspective, lets assume that the rate of increase from 2002 to 2022 is a tad under that from 1982 to 2002, or , or roughly 300%.  That would put the percentage of overweight in China, in 2022, at 68.4%…or about what it is in the United States today, where weight has apparently plateaued because we can’t get any fatter.