FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

Food

Western Fast Food and Soda Are Making China's Blood Pressure Soar

In addition to our shared predilection for iPhones and personal vehicles, many Chinese have turned to Western-style diets full of fast food and soda. Now China has a Western health problem on its hands.
Photo via Flickr user ch-straub

As China has grown into an industrial and economic juggernaut, it has, for better and for worse, picked up some Western habits. In addition to our shared predilection for iPhones and personal vehicles, many Chinese have turned to Western-style diets full of fast food and soda. Now China has a Western health problem on its hands, as high blood pressure, obesity and the diseases they cause are on the rise.

Advertisement

A new study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology found that strokes, heart attacks and other health risks are increasing in China, thanks in large part to rapid modernization over the last 30-odd years. People are eating more meat, drinking more sugary drinks, and, thanks to urbanization, exercising less. Add to that the fact that smoking is still wildly popular in China, with more than 50 percent of men using tobacco, and you've got a recipe for heart trouble. In 2010, 34 percent of Chinese adults had high blood pressure, up from 8 percent in 1979.

"Our estimates suggest that the continued rise in high blood pressure, an increasingly sedentary lifestyle, increasing obesity, and worsening dietary trends will add millions of new cases of heart attacks and stroke over the next two decades," researcher Yanping Li of Harvard said in a statement.

Out of nearly seven million people over the age of 35 who died in 2011, the researchers found that three million, just under half, died from an illness related to cardiovascular disease. And the problem could get worse—the study found that the most dramatic increases in high blood pressure and obesity were among young people and those living in rural areas.

"China is facing a rising epidemic of cardiovascular disease and it shows no sign of abating," Harvard researcher and senior author Frank Hu said in a statement. "It's imperative to continue to monitor the problem, which has serious social and economic consequences."

Hu called for government intervention, suggesting that a government policy could help lower blood pressure.

Maybe another study, published by the American Heart Association this week, could offer insight. That study, which appears in the AHA's journal Circulation, found that a lack of fresh food choices is linked to signs of early heart disease. In American urban food deserts, where fresh food can be hard to come by but fast food and prepackaged processed foods abound, eating and staying healthy can be a challenge.

"The lack of healthy food stores may help explain why people in these neighborhoods have more heart disease," said Jeffrey Wing, one of the study's lead authors.

While China begins to tackle a new health epidemic, there's a little bit of good news that could help: Chinese consumers aren't as impressed with fast food as they once were. And after a scandal that highlighted the massive amounts of antibiotics being pumped into chickens at KFC (a Chinese favorite), some consumers joked, "I don't go to the doctor, I go to KFC." For their hearts' sakes, it's a good thing they were joking.