In Shanghai, students too fat to pass fitness test

While low-fat traditional Chinese food is believed to help you keep fit, more and more Chinese young people are becoming bigger, especially in wealthy cities such as Shanghai.

A latest fitness test launched by Donghua University last Saturday showed 15 percent of 400 participants, all of whom are local college students, failed to pass the test because they are overweight, reports Shanghai Daily. The test also showed senior students had worse performance than juniors. Local education authorities said the reason could be due to less exercises done by the students; only freshmen and sophomores are required by schools to do morning exercises. In Shanghai, 16 percent of young kids aged between 7 to 17 are overweight, while 12.5 percent of them are labeled as obese, almost three times higher than the national average rate, according to 2007 research. Unhealthy food should be blamed besides lack of exercise, experts say. For example, high-calorie fast food has replaced rice in many local young families as parents are too busy to make dinner. Sugar-rich drinks are also favored by more younger kids simply because they are tastier than plain water. According to Chinese Association for Student Nutrition & Health Promotion, China has over 120 million juveniles suffering from being overweight and obese.