China adopts Western obesity.

In PubMed, I came across this interesting article about body weight trends in China:

Emerging disparities in overweight by educational attainment in Chinese adults (1989-2006). from the International Journal of Obesity [London]

It appeared to be a great naturalistic study of the effect of increasing capitalism on body weight. Since China dropped strict communism and allowed individual financial enterprise, there has been a gradual division of their society into the more and less educated and the more and less well-off. Some scholars from California analysed the China Health & Nutrition Survey data and discovered that well-educated Chinese women have become slimmer and well-educated Chinese men have become much larger than their less educated fellows.

I haven't delved into the methodology to see were the sample came from and how severe the differences in education or income, but it is an interesting result for the Chinese to follow the Western pattern, rather than that of a society where bodily bulk means power and money, eg. in some African groups & formerly in the Pacific Islands.
From Robert Lindsay's blog, this photo of a Western, Caucasoid, Chinese man:

We seem to accept in Australia that people from lower SES groups become more obese than their high-SES neighbours due to eating too many high-fat, high carbohydrate foods and not enough fruit, vegetables and lean meat (protein). Would the same mechanism have emerged in China or does their different dietary tradition insulate them from this effect? Perhaps the Chinese have adopted Western-style meals and fatty take-aways as the norm these days (it didn't seem to be the norm when I visited a few years ago, but youngsters obviously relished their KFC and McDonalds when they had enough money for them)?

These possibilities need to be explored before accepting that the Chinese change in the distribution of obesity is due to Westernisation of the diet. There is also the racial mixture of the people in the study sample to consider. In the East of China, especially the giant cities of Beijing & Shanghai, most people are the larger-boned Han Chinese, but in the West most are more Caucasoid with finer bones and fairer hair. The diets tend to be different as well, with higher fat, more protein in the East and less variety, less fat and less food overall in the West.

From Fotopedia, a Han Chinese child:

However, we still haven't explained why rich women are thin and rich men are fat (on average, compared with other SES groups). Is there more to it than diet and psychology?

Have a heart ... and save it

I've been thinking about preventing cardiovascular disease and associated problems like diabetes (which follows obesity) and kidney failure (which follows diabetes)...etc. SO much of the medical and scientific literature is about what they conveniently term "secondary and tertiary prevention"- but that is all AFTER THE FACT! The community seems to be abysmally slack in stopping it all from starting in the first place- even with adults who are already headed down the heart disease track we say "It's your individual responsibility to exercise and eat properly" as though that absolves everyone from worrying about it any more. I've come to the conclusion that we have to stop all this Anglo-Saxon protestant crap about responsibility- TELLING us what we SHOULD DO...and BELIEVE humans are basically neglectful sods far more interested in "The Moment" and start SHOWING US WHAT TO DO!
Give us a bloody DEMONSTRATION every day and keep showing us. Encourage us to join in ALL THE TIME, come walking and playing in the park with us and tell us we're doing OK. Where are the personal trainers for every neighbourhood? PLEASE MR RUDD! Why don't we do it first in Australia and show the rest of the world we will not fall into the Western black hole of fat and sloth!
It frankly gives me the creeps when people my own age are having stents in their coronary arteries, being investigated for mini-strokes and have been put on drastic hospital-directed diets and prescriptive exercise programs they find deadly boring!
I know that lots of so-called "cost effectiveness" studies have shown that many heart disease and obesity prevention programs are not "worth it"- but I think they've left something vital out of their equations. What about all the wasted resources teenagers and adults have put into getting fat and clagging up their arteries?? Can't we count that as a potential saving for the future? As a small person, (though no longer sylph-like! LOL), I have always been pissed off with the wear and tear caused by larger people- not only do you consume more than your fair share of the planet's food, you also wear out the environment faster- paths, roads, lawns, carpets, furniture, cars- everything- you great galumphing sods!! Your clothes are bigger- taking more earthly resources (cotton and linen) and more petroleum (synthetic fibres), there are kilometres more sewing in your seams, tonnes more rubber in your shoes, less space and more load in your fridges! An article in the New York Times seems to agree with me a lot!
GET SMALLER AND PREVENT CLIMATE CHANGE!!!!!
Here's someone else who seems to have cottoned on as well!