CRI听力: Nutrition Status in China

For thousands of years, Chinese people have believed diseases can be prevented through dietary therapy. Cooking shows, nutrition books, actually anything related to how to eat healthily is popular. But if we get down to every individual, how many of them know what kind of nutrition they lack and what food they can take to make it up?

How to eat healthily? Everyone has their own theory. Forty-five-year old citizen Zhang Li expresses hers:

"I think we should eat varieties of food. I have milk and egg for breakfast; staple food, vegetables and soup for lunch; vegetables and porridge for dinner."

With China's economic development, people now have more diversified foods to eat. From 1992 to 2002, citizens' intake of dietary fat increased by 30 percent. However, their intake of microelements declined year by year.

Yu Xiaodong is the director of the Public Nutrition and Development Center at the National Development and Reform Commission. He says there are three causes to the microelement deficiency.

"First our food is over processed. We often remove the rice shell which carries a great deal of nutrition. Second, our soil becomes non-nutritive. Plants can not get as much nutrients as before. Third, heavy metal pollution worsens everyday. Microelements are blocked out by heavy metals in our bodies."

According to the 2002 national nutrition survey, Chinese people's intake of major vitamins is 30 percent lower than the amount suggested by The World Health Organization. But most citizens like Zhang Li do not know what microelement they lack.

"I guess people at my age might lack calcium. But, actually I know nothing about it."

Microelement deficiency can cause many diseases. For instance Viatmin C deficiency might cause scurvy and Vitamin B deficiency might cause acne and anemia.

To encourage citizens to get to know their nutrition status and help them to get proper treatment, health expert Xi Mu has come up with a plan.

"I suggest the government includes the nutrition test fee, counseling fee and nutritional supplement purchase fee into its medical insurance. Or citizens do not need to pay the tax for the money they spend on nutritional products."

Director Yu Xiaodong agrees with the plan.

"Every year our government pays a great deal of money on medical insurance and the cost will grow more rapidly in the future. We have to find ways to change the situation. The United States has been working on establishing nutrition insurance for 10 years. There are many things we can learn."

Director Yu Xiaodong suggests China can run a three to five year test in one or two insurance companies, so we can find out whether it will be more efficient if we subsidize on disease prevention. But he says, optimistically speaking, China still needs 10 years to establish its own nutrition insurance system.