The swing to obesity in Asia

[Cowperson]

The result has been a sharp upswing in obesity, a condition virtually unheard of in Asia a quarter of a century ago. In India, home to half of all undernourished people in the world, 55% of women between 20 and 69 years old are overweight, according to a recent study. A survey released last month by China's Ministry of Health found that the number of obese Chinese had doubled to 60 million between 1992 and 2002, while some 200 million are at least overweight; among children, the obesity rate has reached 8.1%. Altogether, the International Obesity Task Force, a global NGO that studies the spread of the epidemic, estimates that 1.7 billion people—one out of every five worldwide—are overweight or obese. "It's gone very quickly from that period when famine was receding," says Professor Barry Popkin, a nutrition expert at the University of North Carolina. "All of a sudden, instead of having a normal-weight body for a decade or two or three, you move from undernutrition to overnutrition in years."

Another benefit of globalization!!!

http://www.time.com/time/asia/covers/50104...ry.html?cnn=yes

Cowperson

[Mean Mr. Mustard]

That can't be true, from what I have been able to gather cats are in fact low carb diet friendly.

EDIT: It was a joke, so don't get all upset about it.

[Reaper]

Another case of "McDonald's moves in and waistlines go out."

[octothorp]

McDonalds actually isn't as common as you might think in Chinese cities. But the fast-food restaurant that is everywhere is KFC. Chinese culture already knows and loves fried chicken, and so KFC is much more quickly adopted than restaurants like McDonalds, which, although convenient and highly marketed, have fairly unfamiliar and bland foods.

[Regulator75]

Originally posted by octothorp@Nov 5 2004, 04:30 PM
McDonalds actually isn't as common as you might think in Chinese cities. But the fast-food restaurant that is everywhere is KFC. Chinese culture already knows and loves fried chicken, and so KFC is much more quickly adopted than restaurants like McDonalds, which, although convenient and highly marketed, have fairly unfamiliar and bland foods.

This is true, after visiting Malaysia for almost a month I noticed way more KFC's than McDonalds. This is just a guess but I would say 4 KFC's to every 1 Rotten Ronnies. This was back in 2000, so maybe Mcdonalds has caught up.

I blame softdrinks (cause of Obesity) more than fast food. (well I do guess the two go hand in hand).

[Tron_fdc]

One of our suppliers is in Korea, and the last time I was over there he informed ne how he had developed diabetes. It took a while to figure out what he was saying, as it roughly translated into "sick blood" in English. :unsure:

A day or two later he confessed his love for KFC, and how he thought it was actually good for him. He figured Mcdonalds was bad, but because he was eating chicken it was all good, and wouldn't hurt his diabetes. He was a little surprised when I started laughing at him, and even more surprised when I explained how much grease and calories are packed into one piece of the dirty bird.

I think that they're a little behind the times in how we percieve fast food here.

[Claeren]

After spending 3 months in Asia over the summer it is true that McD's are not that common. There were more KFC's, Burger King's, Starbucks, Hagendaz(?), and most common of all, 7/11's. McD's were only generally in the big huge shopping centre's where as the others were all over, most cities did have at least a single McD's and it was always a focal point....

In general i was also surprised by the obesity in many places, still FAR less then here, not to mention the States...

Claeren.