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Post by con's fly is open on Oct 9, 2005 17:45:19 GMT 7
BEIJING (AFP) - Nearly one-third of the children in China's poverty-stricken areas are malnourished, far more than in urban areas, in an example of the country's growing income disparity.
The survey conducted by the Beijing-based Institute of Nutrition and Food Safety found that more than 29 percent of children under five years old in China's poorest regions were growing at a slower than normal rate, China Daily said.
In contrast, only about one percent of their counterparts in urban areas are plagued by malnutrition, according to the survey conducted among more than 200,000 residents, including about 23,400 children aged five and below, across the country.
"The problem often surfaces when mothers stop breastfeeding their babies," Han Junhua, a researcher with the institute, was quoted by the China Daily as saying.
It is unclear why the mothers stop breastfeeding their babies, but many women in rural areas have to perform hard labor or travel away from home to make a decent living.
In rural areas, parents often depend on cheap syrup, malt, orange juice and even carbonated soft drinks to feed their children, the researcher said.
"As a result, toddlers in underdeveloped regions are also generally shorter than kids in cities," Han said.
Newborns in rural areas also weigh less than those in the cities.
Too rich a diet, on the other hand, has increased the level of obesity in China's larger, wealthier cities where milk, formula milk powder, yogurt and many other types of food are available.
Severe obesity now affects some 16 percent to 20 percent of urban youngsters.
Average birth weight of some babies in urban areas topped 3.3 kilos (7.3 pounds), close to the level of developed countries, the study found.
Young people between three and 18 years old are on average three centimeters (1.2 inches) taller than a decade ago, it said.
However, the survey also found that 25 percent of children up to two years old in cities and 33 percent in rural areas suffer from anaemia, while 15 percent suffer Vitamin A deficiency.
The poorest parts of China are Guizhou and Yunnan provinces in the southwest as well as Qinghai province in the northwest.
Two and a half decades of economic reform has brought increasing wealth to China's coastal areas and large cities, but many people living in the country's economically backward western regions still struggle to have a proper diet and shelter, with health care and education being luxuries they cannot afford.
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Post by Mr Nobody on Oct 10, 2005 7:52:58 GMT 7
Chinese people cope with obesity approximately half as well as Europeans. A genetic issue.
(based on a paper presented at a conference on world health issues, a couple of years ago in HK)
Chinese people who are 10% overweight have the same kind of health problems as those who are 20% of European decent. From memory, those of African decent cope a little better than Europeans. (I can't recall the exact figures, but the magnitude is approximately correct)
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Ruth
SuperDuperMegaBarfly 
God's provisions are strategically placed along the path of your obedience.
Posts: 3,915
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Post by Ruth on Oct 10, 2005 9:07:53 GMT 7
I've noticed that the younger generation are taller than their parents, and certainly their grandparents. Undoubtedly due to better nutrition.
I've also seen several obese little kids running around. Wish they could just take the good out of western society and forget the harmful parts.
Distribution of wealth is not just China's problem. America can't brag about taking good care of poor children's nutrition needs.
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Crippler
Barfly
Beware the conspiracy!
Posts: 345
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Post by Crippler on Oct 10, 2005 10:29:09 GMT 7
America can't brag about taking good care of poor children's nutrition needs. So which country can brag about it? I can't find one anywhere that is doing a great job at it. But in comparison, who does it any better on a large scale? It is a global problem. |
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Post by con's fly is open on Oct 10, 2005 17:29:25 GMT 7
Scandinavian countries do well, but they have small populations. The gap between rich and poor is widening almost everywhere.
China just announced their new Five Year Economic Plan. The buzzword is "building a harmonious society". That, at least, shows fantastic intentions: rural poverty is a central theme on CCTV-9 right now, and given how they're crowing about the unanimous success of each 5-year plan from Deng on (not to mention the unanimous failure of all the Mao-era ones), they're talkin' big words, which will be presented to them in 2010.
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Post by Lotus Eater on Oct 10, 2005 18:45:35 GMT 7
China just announced their new Five Year Economic Plan. The buzzword is "building a harmonious society". That, at least, shows fantastic intentions: rural poverty is a central theme on CCTV-9 right now, and given how they're crowing about the unanimous success of each 5-year plan from Deng on (not to mention the unanimous failure of all the Mao-era ones), they're talkin' big words, which will be presented to them in 2010. And here I thought it was newspeak for 'quit the 74,000 serious protests you staged last year or we'll find ways of making you quit". |
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Post by Mr Nobody on Oct 11, 2005 12:56:01 GMT 7
Being taller is a result of two factors - one being diet, and is the more important one to consider. The other, genetics, will increase the height of people as they travel and interbreed with other groups.
In a small population, the number of alleles for height is strictly limited, to perhaps only one or two at one or two sites in the genome, due to a more homogeneous genetic makeup. However, each group can have this in different places from others. I think there are up to 15 alleles in around 12 sites on the genes. As the popultaions interbreed, they can get more alleles for hieght in more locations, and so able to be taller. This also makes the population more variable. With a small inbred pop, you have mostly "average" for the population, with some tall, some short, and basically all the tall people are the same height as each other, and all the short people are the same height. With a heterogeneous pop, there are many more increments as well as greater range.
A harmonious society is one that has the same opinions as me.
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yijin
Up And Coming
Posts: 13
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Post by yijin on Oct 19, 2005 13:26:00 GMT 7
Admittedly ,China has scored remarkable achievements over past decades. though
there are still much to be desired.
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Post by Mr Nobody on Oct 19, 2005 16:48:10 GMT 7
IMHO it doesn't matter so much if the gap between poor and rich is widening, as long as the poor keep improving, if you know what I mean. I can eat better than King Henry viii and have more toys and live longer, but I am a peasant in this century.
I don't think it matters how far you are from the poorest, but how far the poorest are from the bottom of the pit. It isn't a race or a contest, except against dying too young or living in misery. Absolute not relative.
In this manner, the world is doing just fine. Although, yes, room for improvements in every country and every century, and although it isn't even or consistent. The direction is forward.
China has a big job, with about what is it?, one quarter of the worlds population, and I think it is doing ok. Maybe not great, but OK. Maybe not evenly nor consistently, but I think that would have been virtually impossible. But gotta start somewhere. Now the countryside? Good.
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Post by Jollyjunklass on Oct 19, 2005 17:44:31 GMT 7
Well,
I live around people in the country side. They bust their asses off, I work 12 hours a week. So many times I will pay way more for something, because I know they need and deserve the money way more than I do.
I admire these people, they have hard lives and don't seem to bitch the way we would. I think the country side could use a lot of help from the government. I see a large difference between here and Guangzhou, but I also saw a lot of poor in Guangzhou.
The poor, here, are amazing. I wish I could communicate with them more.
In one sense you are right about the nutrition of the poor in the west, but we shouldn't forget the social systems that are set up to help these people. We have welfare, food banks and all sorts of other support systems in place. I think the nutrition problem, among those in the west, is not a lack of funding, rather it is in the decisions of these children's parents to go out and spend their welfare money on things other than good food.
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Post by con's fly is open on Oct 20, 2005 18:16:13 GMT 7
Putting aside actual wealth, china has a lot of work to do in providing equality of opportunity. And judging by the plethora of cutesy stories on CCTV-9 about scholarships to poor rural students, I think the guv gets it, too. 5 year plan: clocks ticking, little men.  |
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Post by Chips Downe on Oct 20, 2005 20:28:32 GMT 7
Hey, I have friends who are peasants too (why does it freak me when they use this word?) They work hard in season, but it seems like most of the time they're not working at all, just huddled around waiting for stuff to grow... of course that's when the arguments start and the Huis and Hans begin killing each other. In town they sit for hours around playing mah jong... that can cause a few arguments too. I have rarely seen anybody working hard in China in all the time I've been here...especially my students.
I'm also pretty sure that even if they had the money to buy better food they wouldn't... they'd rather save it and go on eating mantous and huimian. (and commenting condescendingly about 'Western fast food'...)
I agree with you though about pricing... "Shenme?" I gasp, and they look quite nervous...then I say "Pianyi! An shi Laowai!" I have sometimes forbidden friends to haggle too.
I am with you though
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