Daniel Otero 3531189352@qq.com TWO decades ago, the U.S. came to the realization that it was a fat nation, with over 60 percent of its people being obese. Fifty years of splurging on fast food and the lack of activity have caused U.S. youth and young adults to expand along the waistline. The one thing I always admired about China was the fact of how active people are after work; especially in the older generation and middle-aged people who were always doing calisthenics. However, I have noticed lately that Chinese youngsters under 19 years of age are not being as physically active as before. Twenty percent of these teens are already suffering from heavy weight gain. There is a reason for this: more time in class, sitting longer, less physical activity and constantly on various electronic devices for more than five hours (telephones and computers, etc.). The incidence of this issue has spiked throughout China since 2018. If the issue is not tackled early, it will get out of control within the next decade and you’ll have an obese nation that cannot function as well as it does now. For starters, these are the issues with premature deaths and the onset of early diabetes in children. What the government has planned in a genius way is to slash the problem by 70 percent from 2020 to 2030, because officials have noticed these issues are getting out of control. The growth of the fast-food industry in China has added to and fueled this situation, and what they are suggesting for the affected population is to avoid foods that are processed and high in sugar, fat and salt. Further, a person who gains incredible weight will later suffer from depression, self-esteem issues and a lack of confidence. And this in itself will destroy their lives! The youth of China already have to deal with a lot of pressures in study, the future and in building their country. They don’t need an added issue in their lives like weight gain. Experts have suggested the youth need a total of 2 hours and 30 minutes of exercise a week, or at least that’s the minimum. In response, the schools in China are already implementing a regime for 3 hours of exercise a week. This in itself helps solve part of the problem. The other is getting the parents on board with a nutrition plan to keep their kids healthy; the schools can’t do it all alone! Parents or grandparents may as well do exercise with their children in the evenings (after school) and during the weekends. Many youth are indulging too much in the fast-food craze of McDonald’s and KFC almost every day of the week. This has to be minimized to once a week and even, in extreme situations of obesity, to once a month. The problem isn’t gaining weight, it’s gaining extreme weight. The matter here is, this generation is getting fatter and fatter, and doing so younger and younger. It is natural for our bodies to get flabby after we pass the age of 40, because our metabolism slows down considerably. The point here is to keep fit and active. This needs to happen within the whole family. What’s obesity, or what’s considered an overweight person? If you have more than 23 percent body fat, that is considered obese, depending on the body size and weight. A person who is extremely healthy should have no more than 3 percent body fat if they’re male and 15 percent for female. That is the ideal condition. For this reason, it’s recommended to stand more than 3 hours a day, and if lacking time for exercise, it’s important for people to walk at least 5,000 steps a day. To be fully active, people ought to walk over 10,000 steps per day. With that said, let’s get the youth active and in gear before it’s too late! (The author is originally from New York City working as a teacher at the Shenzhen Guangming Foreign Languages School.) | 