China targets childhood obesity with urgent new guidelines on diet and exercise
The guidelines also said interventions were needed for other common conditions such as myopia and scoliosis, which were contributed to by poor diet and lack of outdoor activity.
Experts last sounded the alarm about the health problem in May, when Shen Hongbing, director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told a scientific conference on obesity in May that more than 10 percent of children under the age of 6 were overweight or obese.
To address this issue, schools should offer at least one physical education class per day and allow sufficient time for students to move between classes, according to the guidelines.
They also call for greater awareness of healthy eating habits – including reduced consumption of salt, oil and added sugar in diets – as well as the use of “scientific interventions” and the hiring of qualified nutritionists in schools.
Schools, supermarkets, restaurants and other food outlets should also use nutrition labels on their products or health advice for students.
To monitor conditions, the guidelines provide for regular health checks and medical records for students, with prompt feedback to parents.
Yan Weili, an expert on childhood overweight and obesity at Fudan University, said it was difficult to tackle the problem.
“It is not easy to reverse the trend of overweight and obesity in children, but nationwide guidelines can raise public awareness of the existing problem,” Yan said.
Yan said the prevention and control measures mentioned in the guidelines were scientific, but their implementation could pose problems, including the need for children themselves to want to make changes.
“Early detection of overweight and obesity has been a common practice for a long time, but external influences have limited effect. The unhealthy lifestyle of these students needs to be changed based on their internal motivation,” she said.
Additionally, China lacks national guidelines on interventions and research for children who are already overweight or obese, Yan said.

02:52
Former Olympic stars employed as PE teachers as China pushes physical education in schools
Former Olympic stars employed as PE teachers as China pushes physical education in schools
Researchers from Peking University and the United Nations Children’s Fund have proposed taxing sugary drinks to help address the health and economic consequences of obesity among young people.
“The rapid increase in overweight and obesity among children and adolescents in China has significant health and economic impact,” the team said in a paper published by The Lancet Regional Health in December.
They estimate that in addition to reducing life expectancy, these conditions could cause total economic losses of 218 trillion yuan ($30 trillion) in China between 2025 and 2092 if no intervention is taken.
The study suggests that imposing a 20% tax on sugary drinks and restricting advertising of unhealthy foods to children would produce the greatest health and economic gains.
In 2020, China set a target of reducing the rate of overweight and obesity among young people by 70% between 2020 and 2030 compared with the previous decade.
A study published by The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology in 2021 found that measures introduced to reduce the incidence of overweight and obesity nationally were not effective in curbing the rise of these diseases.
In Hong Kong, the rate of overweight and obesity among primary and secondary school students in the 2022-23 academic year was nearly 20%, according to authorities in January.

01:19
Children practice figures walking on a cylinder in kindergarten
Children practice figures walking on a cylinder in kindergarten
Globally, more than 390 million children and adolescents aged 5 to 19 were overweight or obese in 2022, with the rate increasing dramatically from just 8% in 1990 to 20% in 2022, according to the World Health Organization.
“Although Western countries recognized and acted on the problem of childhood overweight and obesity earlier than China, the long-term trend of the epidemic is not optimistic and continues to increase,” Yan said.
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