More than half of China’s adults are now considered overweight, a study by the country’s National Health Commission revealed on Wednesday. Obesity rates among Chinese adults have also doubled in less than two decades, from 7.1% in 2002 to 16.4% this year.
According to the report, 50.7% of Chinese adults are overweight, including obese. In a country of 1.4 billion, it amounts to over half a billion people – more than the entire US population.
This is a sudden increase in the last two decades. In 2002, 29.9% of Chinese adults were overweight, including obese. In 2012, this figure rose to 42%, according to previous reports released by Chinese health authorities.
“The people of our country face a severe problem of overweight and obesity. The rates of overweight and obesity among residents, both in urban and rural areas and in all age groups are constantly rising,” he said. Li Bin, Deputy Director of the National Health Commission. press conference on Wednesday.
This is partly due to the huge changes in diet and eating habits caused by the country’s rapid economic growth. In the 1950s and 1960s, famine saw about 45 million Chinese starve to death. And by 1993, people had to use government-distributed food vouchers to get commodities such as rice, oil, eggs and meat.
Gone are the days of food shortages. Now, the Chinese are free to eat largely as they choose, and the country’s new wealth has brought more nutritious and high-calorie foods to the table.
The increase in spending power has also given rise to the problem of food waste, which Chinese President Xi Jinping called “shocking and painful.” On Tuesday, a draft law on food waste prevention was submitted to the country’s national legislature.
Increasing rates of overweight and obesity are an additional burden on public health. Being overweight increases the risk of serious illness and health conditions, including high blood pressure, diabetes, coronary heart disease and stroke, says the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“China’s overweight and obesity rates have risen rapidly, with a high prevalence and affecting all groups of the population. This brings enormous challenges,” said Zhao Wenhua, chief nutritionist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
According to the World Health Organization, at least 4 million people die each year from overweight or obesity.
Globally, obesity has also increased, almost tripling since 1975, according to the WHO. In 2016, 39% of adults globally – or more than 1.9 billion people – were overweight, including over 650 million who were obese.
In the United States, 71.6% of adults were classified as overweight, including obese, between 2015 and 2016, according to the CDC.
But China has a tougher measurement than global standards. The WHO estimates that a body mass index (BMI) – a ratio of weight to height – over 25 is overweight and more than 30 obese. In China, a BMI greater than 24 is considered overweight, and over 28 are obese.
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