How did China go from “a country without fat people” to the country with the largest number of obese people in the world?

Over the past 10 years, the number of obese people in China has doubled, with an average of one in three overweight people and one in nine clinically obese people.

In October, researchers from China’s National Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published a study in the US journal “Annals of Internal Medicine”, according to which the rate of general obesity in China has more than doubled from 2004 to 2014, and abdominal obesity has increased by more than 50%.

The reasons why Chinese people are getting fatter and fatter are as follows: 1. Back in the day, obesity and related health problems were viewed as a sign of “affluence”, and people saw no reason to start forming healthy eating habits. 2. The development of urbanization brings convenient transportation, more choices of food and the popularity of fast food. 3. White-collar workers, suffering from high stress environment, often give up on sleep and exercise, which aggravates obesity. Although people now know how to pay attention to healthy diet and lifestyle, on the whole, Chinese people eat a bit too well in comparison to their parents’ generation.

10年来，中国肥胖人群数量翻了一倍，平均每3人中就有1人超重，9人中有一人是临床意义上的肥胖。 今年10月，中国国家疾病控制和预防中心研究人员发表在美国《内科医学年鉴》上的一项研究显示，2004年到2014年，中国的全身性肥胖率已经增长了2倍多，腹部肥胖的增长超过了50%。 中国人越来越胖的原因有：1. 中国人曾一度把肥胖带来的疾病称为富贵病。这种错误的“富态”观念导致人们没有健康的饮食观念。2.城市化的发展，带来便利的交通，更多选择的美食，还有快餐的流行。3. 现在白领的工作压力越来越大，熬夜，没时间锻炼，加剧了肥胖。虽然现在人们也懂得关注健康的饮食和生活方式， 但是总得来说，中国人吃的比自家父辈们好太多了。