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Weight-Challenged Chinese
With the advent of the open-door policy, China is adopting many western ways, both good and bad. One of the most lamentable has to be adopting of western diets, including thick slabs of black pepper steak, creamy mashed potatoes, spicy deep fried chicken, triple-decker hamburgers, maple-walnut doughnuts, and countless other processed foods void of any shred of nutrition.
The Chinese owe their considerable longevity in great part to the traditional diet of rice, vegetables, and fish. There are currently much lower incidents of cancer, diabetes, and heart disease in China than in the West, and diet must have a great deal to do with it.
However, now with personal incomes soaring in the cities, dining and snacking on western food is all the rage. McDonald’s restaurants are popping up more often now than traditional noodle shops in the big cities, while KFC still dominates the fast food market nationwide. Milk, butter, and cheese, virtually absent from the dinner table in years past are now becoming a regular fixture. Snack food companies like Frito-Lays, Cadbury’s, and Wrigley’s are now vying for space with traditional snacks like sunflower seeds and shrimp crackers on the grocery shelves.
10 years ago, one rarely saw overweight Chinese anywhere. Nowadays, children especially, with little immunity to the marketing savvy of Coca-cola, are bearing the brunt of this national gastronomic shift, and it shows. Pudgy elementary kids are still the butt of jokes, but there seems little shame yet here, where many may think that “Fatty’s” parents must be rich enough to let him eat whatever he wants. I sincerely hope it never becomes a status symbol of wealth.
It has received some government attention and concern, and the private sector is now taking notice of this modern day social phenomenon. For helpless parents who cannot stop themselves from spoiling their “Little Emperors and Empresses”,(most often their only child) there are even fat farms for kids now. The TV ads they run border on comical; an obese little 12 year old Ming Ming gasping and sweating up a storm on a treadmill while the teacher eggs him on, a studious 15 year old Xiao Hua being tested on her recollection of the proper levels of cholesterol and blood pressure.
Well, the only bright side of all this is while there are plenty of Westerners earning a living in the stables of traditional Japanese sumo wrestling, Chinese might be inadvertently breeding the next generation of grapplers for this heavy-weight sport.
last modified Sep 11, 2004 at 1:05
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