Chips, cholesterol and KFC

2004-07-12 13:22

Shanghai - For Chinese raised in an era of food rationing, with memories of days of grumbling, empty bellies, long food lines and dusty piles of winter cabbage, buying groceries these days is truly like being a kid in a candy shop.

Shelves burst with choices - crackers, cookies, chocolates, chips. Tubs of dried fruit, jelly and pudding line crowded aisles. Traditional pastries packed with lard, egg yolks and bean paste are no longer once-a-year treats but handy snacks.

No wonder that tens of millions of Chinese - members of a culture so food-focused that "Have you eaten yet?" is one way of saying hello - have joined the global epidemic of obesity that has left one in four people overweight.

"It was a matter of fulfilling my every wish," says Jia Yihe, a hefty 23-year-old, citing an old saying to explain the reason for the weight gain that prompted his family to send him to a Shanghai weight-loss clinic.

"It also had a lot to do with KFC and McDonald's," he admits.

Universal fattening

Although fast foods are one culprit, a universal fattening of the global food trade is seen by many experts as a key cause for the abandonment of traditional, low-cost diets rich in fibre and grain for those higher in sugar, oil and animal fats.

Obesity rates have soared as China shifts from staple foods to culinary abundance and from gruelling physical labour to more sedentary work.

China still imports less than five percent of the groceries that show up on its dinner tables each night, but you'd never guess that by looking at the array of Western and Asian-style snack foods crammed into every supermarket store.

Many are products licensed by foreign food conglomerates to local manufacturers, using ingredients grown in China - frequently with extra sugar, even in salty snacks.

"Leisure-time foods like cookies and potato chips are the most popular food in our stores," says Liang Jianfang, a business manager at a supermarket chain. She acknowledges that the most-coveted foods are the least healthy.

Supply and demand

The stores can't afford to reject unhealthy products if customers want them, she said.

Pockets of hunger still exist among China's poorest. But most young urban Chinese have never gone hungry. Convenience stores like 7-Eleven compete side-by-side. KFC and McDonald's both have hundreds of restaurants in cities.

Mainland Chinese may not have a word for "love handles", but they've become all-too-familiar with "pijiu du" (beer bellies) and "spider guys" - men with big, round bodies and skinny arms and legs.

Estimates of the number of overweight Chinese vary. One study showed that by 2000, just under a third of all Chinese adults were overweight.

A separate study found that eight percent of children aged three to six were obese.

Despite many Chinese studies documenting the same trends, the government has yet to take concerted action.

- AP