CHINA: Summer camp opens doors to overweight children in capital Beijing as China struggles to fight obesity among its young

The "OK Slim" summer camp has opened its doors to young Chinese with a weight problem, offering daily exercises and low-fat meals. Some 40 overweight kids from all parts of China are currently at the camp, aiming to stay for a month and lose some weight while having fun. The cost of the camp programme is on average 6,600 RMB (US$ 825) per child. Children usually start their day with an aerobic dance in the morning, followed by a short break to eat fruits, and a game of basketball or some other physical activity in the afternoon. They eat three regular meals but all dishes are low on calories and fat. "My weight has gone beyond the limit for my age, so it is time for me to lose some weight", 10-year-old, Tang Tang said. An obese child will most probably carry health problems into his or her adulthood. The health consequences of being overweight or obese include diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, stroke, cancer and lower recovery chances from cancer. "Being fat does not affect me socializing with my friends, but it has very bad effects on my health. I want to do this so as to keep away cardiovascular diseases", 18-year-old, Li Nan said. As standards of living continues to increase across China, some parts of the country reported a 50 percent increase in obesity rates among primary school students over the last five years. A culture of computer games, the Internet and an increase in accessible junk food have all been blamed for the rapid increase in obesity levels amongst children in China. Pressure in school have also meant children spend more time in the classroom than outside doing physical exercise with 60 percent of Beijing schools saying their students did not receive the recommended one hour a day of outdoor physical activity. "Most kids are fat now because they are not leading a very healthy life. For example, they don't eat healthily. They do not have enough nutrition they need but they eat a lot of high-calorie food instead, which leads to fat piling up in their bodies. Plus most of them are busy with study that they barely have time to do exercise. Once they become fat, they don't want to move, so they do not use much of calorie in their bodies. After a while, they would put up a lot of weight ", summer camp manager, Wang Xiaochun ,said. Fast-growing China is facing an obesity epidemic with about 18 million people obese and 137 million overweight, according to recent study by Chinese researchers Although the problem is less severe than in the United States, it poses a major public health problem for leaders of the world's most populous nation. Another 64 million of China's 1.3 billion people suffer from a condition call metabolic syndrome which raises their risk of heart disease and other illnesses. END

ITN Source | August 5, 2006

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