While China is panicking about what they see as an obesity epidemic, I yet have to see an overweight Chinese. I mean seriously, this is rare. China’s overall obesity rate is below five percent, however it reaches 20 percent in some cities due to introduction of fast food.
I agree that 20 percent obesity rate is an alarming number, but, on the other hand, there is one positive thing about it. The fact that Chinese are getting obese eating fast food proves that Chinese do not have anything special in their bodies that makes them predisposed to being slim. If they eat what we eat they become just like us, or… many of us? Anyway, you get the point. While the fact that China’s growing obesity rates are not something that makes us happy, it actually does tell us that we too can fix ourselves by changing our habits – what we eat and how we eat.
Eating like Chinese
Obviously, traditional Chinese food is way healthier and less calorie-dense than hamburger and French fries – that’s not what I am going to talk about. What I am going to talk about is one weird study published back in 2008. According to this study, normal-weight people were three times more likely to use chopsticks at Chinese restaurant. While there is no evidence that chopsticks will make you thin, they obviously can slow you down.
This probably won’t work for everyone, but some may find it a nice addition to their bag of tricks. By the way, I learned this from James Beckerman, the author of The Flex Diet