China is catching up!

[reinhard]

Not just in terms of Olympic medals and GDP, but also in terms of snacking induced obesity.

From:

http://apjcn.nhri.org.tw/server/APJCN/V ... 53_262.pdf

(emphases mine)

This study investigates the dynamic shifts in snacking behaviors and patterns in China. Using four waves (1991, 2004, 2006, and 2009) from the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS), with full socioeconomic and demo- graphic data and 3-day, 24-hour dietary recall data, 45,402 individuals age two and older were studied.

...

This study shows that the Chinese population is experiencing a dramatic increase in snacking and that a marked transition from a tradition of two or three main meals per day toward meals combined with snacks is underway. Further research should attempt to understand how the marketing of food and other changes in the food system have led to such dramatic changes in eating behavior. The health implications of such a transition in snacking behavior should be further investigated.

...

In China snacking played a small role in the diets of individuals of all ages until 2004. Since 2004, a marked transition in snacking behaviors and patterns has occurred with significant increases in the prevalence of snacking, the number of snacking occurrences in a day, and the contribution of snacks to total EI. This represents more than a doubling of snacking from 2004 to 2009.

[Jethro]

I'm not surprised. Reinhard cited stats that 90% of the daily 500 calorie increase in calorie consumption in the United States since 1977 has come from between-meal eating.

Folks, 90% of 500 calories amounts to 400 annual EXTRA CALORIES PER DAY, equivalent to an additional 40 LB PER YEAR!

Ever since I got rid of my snacks, my weight has dropped slowly but steadily.

[wosnes]

Scary, isn't it?

This is equally as scary. This is from The American Way of Eating by Tracie McMillan

More than two centuries after Jefferson wrote of the inexcusable divide between the meals of the poor and the rich, we've yet to solve what food historian Harvey Levenstein has aptyly dubbed the "paradox of plenty." Put simply, our agriculture is abundant but healthy diets are not. The American way of eating is defined not by plenty, but by the simultaneous, contradictory, relentless presence of scarce nutrition in its midst. And those this conundrum may be seen most clearly in America's extravagant harvests alongside our declining health, it is slowly taking root across the globe.

(bold text mine)

[oolala53]

Where was the increase in snacking linked to rising obesity? Data here show that those who snack ingest more calories on average. Did this China study find the same thing?

Man, talk about a drain on the health care system. Can you imagine if the heart disease, diabetes, and cancer rates are as high in China as they are here? Here is where autocracy may be an advantage. I would think if the gummint is paying the health care costs, they might step in a regulate marketing. Where is some good totalitarian propaganda when you need it?