Babies are born bigger, kids are more obese and the percentage of people with hypertension (high blood pressure) is nearly twice the national average.

Nutritionists at an ongoing international forum that opened last week warned Shanghai citizens are piling on the weight, in a city that used to be known for its slender women and trim men.

Dean Eileen Kennedy, from the Nutrition School of Tufts University in the United States, said research showed Shanghai newborns often weigh 4 kg or more. The national standard ranges between 2.5 kg to 4 kg.

About 16 percent of kids in Shanghai aged between seven and 17 are overweight, while another 12.5 percent are obese. In the 18 and above age group the figures are, respectively, 29 percent and 4 percent. The percentage of obese kids is nearly three times the national average.

As a consequence of being overweight, 30 percent of Shanghai residents suffer from hypertension while the country's average is nearly 18 percent.

Over the past 20 years, Shanghai citizens' daily intake of edible oil has grown from 28g to 50g. The percentage of meat in the diet has expanded from 10 percent to just under 26 percent.

But cereal products, which were the staple food two decades ago, constitute 39 percent of a meal.

 Also, some people are taking an excess of vitamin pills, which Kennedy said could be dangerous, because they cannot as readily absorb natural vitamins from food.

A recent survey by the Shanghai statistics bureau found the city's kids spend more time on computers and eating junk food than playing sports.

Half of the city's primary and high-school students spend less than one hour in the playground or doing sports activities. At least 60 percent of kids eat junk food, the survey concluded.

Kennedy said that advice on how to stay healthy needed to be made public, especially for expectant mothers who eat as much as possible to have a big baby. Being fat as a baby can lead to health problems later, she added.

(China Daily September 12, 2007)