I was at the Best of Shanghai awards earlier this month, when I heard a shocking announcement. Best New Business in Shanghai: Weight Watchers. Really? I turned to an American standing next to me with perplexity, thinking it must be for the expats gorging on French baguettes and an influx of gelato stores. But it turns out the business model is focusing on local Chinese.
It’s still rare to see an overweight local – quite a difference from the U.S. where one in three people is obese. But apparently China has the second fastest growing rate of obesity increase in the world — second only to Mexico, according to a 2008 report.
It seems the locals are putting on the pounds with fast food, calorie-ridden coffee drinks, and a sedentary lifestyle.
I read an interesting interview with the head of Weight Watchers in China, during which she discusses some of the common exercise myths she’s heard working here:
- If you stand up and don’t sit, you won’t gain weight
- If you get eight hours of sleep, you will gain weight
Along with the prolific fast food chains, she sees the one-child policy as a contributor. With two sets of doting grandparents for each grandchild, overfeeding runs rampant. And, with lots of high-oil foods, there are plenty of local Chinese dishes contributing to the expanded waistlines. The worse offender? Ti Pong: a pork shoulder covered in fat, deep-fried and stewed until it slides off the bone like butter. Mmmmmm.
Photo by jasonlam
Kellie Schmitt
Schmitt is a Shanghai-based writer who has been published in the Wall Street Journal, The Economist’s Business China, L.A. Times, L.A. Weekly, and Backpacker. She also writes Shanghai features for CNNgo, a new travel and lifestyle Web site. Driven by her love of good food, ...
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