China, the true heavyweight
Friday, June 11, 2010 at 12:07AM 
Bloomberg BusinessWeek snapshot article.
The most immediately visual evidence of China’s one-child policy is the chubby male kid tended to by multiple adults (those two parents and six grandparents) as he waddles down the street.
When I was in China for the first time (our adoption trip), I almost felt like I was part of some magical character parade in a Miyazaki film (you know, those floating fat spirit characters from “Spirited Away”) because, compared to the Chinese, we Americans were huge. Most of the guys weighed over 250lbs and most of the women were over 150. The disparity was stunning.
Until you spotted that overweight “little emperor” be tended to so gently by the doting grandparents. Thirty percent of Chinese adults are now overweight, and their numbers lean toward the younger ones—the initial products of the one-child policy going back to the early 1980s. Just six years ago the share was 25%. The share will keep rising: 40% of Beijing boys are overweight.
In America, roughly 2/3rds of adults are considered overweight.
The story starts with a suitable poster child: 26-yeard-old Shanghai man, 5-9 and 220 lbs. He remembers being “plied with dumplings, ice cream, and Kentucky Fried Chicken by his parents and grandparents.” Now he fears an early heart attack.
This is a tricky issue in a country that has as many uninsured people as we’ve got people (300m), thus the gov is spending $125 to get everyone covered by 2020. Type 2 diabetes numbers now approach 100m and are sure to rocket far higher.
Bottom line: anybody who does healthcare, weight control, and fitness has a future in China—a very BEEEG future!
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