China’s Impressive Health Statistics
China has over one billion three hundred million people. To help you put it in perspective, for every person in America there are 5 people in China. The obesity rate in America is over sixty percent. I go to China and spend up to 2 to 3 months each year. As a Tour Director, I will travel the country for 2 weeks at a time. I can honestly say it would take me two weeks to even see 10 obese people and in the five years that I have been going to China regularly, I don’t think I have ever seen a morbidly obese person. How could there be so many people and so few obese people? It boils down to lifestyle.
The Lifestyle That Keeps China Fit
On my recent trip, I invited a Chinese couple in their sixties to come and have lunch with me. I ordered an Asian salad from room service. I had brought some canned salmon from the States. When I took out my can opener and proceeded to open one of the cans, both of them looked at me like I had brought a foreign object from space. I said to them, “You don’t have a can opener?”
They said, “We have never seen a can opener.”
“What? No can openers in China?”
They then said, “If we need a can opener we use a knife.” I then offered to give my can opener to them. They turn me down.
They said, “We do not need a can opener; we eat fresh.”
Six Key Practices of a Healthy Chinese Lifestyle
WOW!!!! Their lifestyle in China is so different. It is a lifestyle that produces a billion three hundred million fit people. Here are just 6 of the many things they do to have a country of slim people.
- Walking and riding bikes are a way of life. In Beijing, their capital city, there are over 16 million people and 10 million bikes. They even have bike lanes on the roads with bike lights at the intersections.
- Food is fresh. Most of the people go to the market everyday.
- Meat is a condiment. I have never seen meat served in big pieces as we see it in western countries. Most of the time it comes as part of a vegetable dish.
- Exercise is a way of life. Throughout China, you will find groups of people and individuals exercising in parks and other public areas. The largest and most impressive group of exercisers I have ever seen is in Beijing. On my most recent trip, I stayed a few extra days and went to the park every day where I exercised with the 50 thousand people that come in and out every day. I am amazed at what their senior population is able to do.
- Vegetables are the main part of theirThey have a much wider variety of vegetables than we enjoy and they serve many vegetable dishes at every meal.
- Health is at the top of their minds in China. In America, taste is at the top of our minds. It’s what we talk about. In contrast, I often hear the Chinese comment on what is healthy and what is not.
