Trimming the fat amid lean times

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By Alexis Hooi (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-03-13 07:46

Three dishes, a soup and no booze - it is an incredibly sparse menu for official banquets thrown by a great culinary civilization.

But that is exactly what visiting heads of state in China can look forward to, as Li Zhaoxing, spokesman for the Second Session of the 11th National People's Congress, tabled ahead of the annual meeting of the top legislative body earlier this month.

The diet directive is one of the latest signals by a government advocating frugality and saving in this tough economic climate.

From the famed Peking duck high up north to the Yunnan ham delicacies of the southern regions, Chinese hosts are justifiably known for honoring guests with sumptuous meals that present the rich bounty of one of the world's most geographically and ethnically diverse countries.

Those who have attended such banquets will similarly attest to the accepted norm of Chinese diners ordering piles of food and leaving much of it untouched.

Major cities such as Beijing were already throwing away more than 1,600 tons of food from tables every day at the turn of the century amid the country's red-hot development.

Culture vultures will say leftovers on affluent dining tables here are a deliberate sign of prosperity and abundance, while optimists point to the rising number of young working couples who make an effort to box and save their food for the next microwave meal at home.

It is a far cry from the famines throughout Chinese history that fueled rebels to bring down dynasties and emperors who could not keep the bellies of their people full, losing the "mandate of heaven" and the right to rule as a result.

The problem is now reversed. About 2.6 percent of China's 1.3 billion people were obese and 14.7 percent overweight by 2007, an official health and nutrition survey showed. The obesity figures reportedly grew threefold from those of 15 years earlier.

Girths are also widening among youngsters in urban areas who are fed fast food and lead sedentary lifestyles, in turn worrying health authorities in the world's largest developing country and pointing to a future generation plagued by chronic illnesses such as diabetes and high blood pressure.

The number of diabetes cases in the country has alone tripled in the past decade, with at least 60 million people now suffering from an affliction no longer considered a "rich man's disease", latest figures from health authorities have showed.

The developed world is faring no better. About $48 billion worth of perishable food in the United States is wasted annually, estimates by international agencies showed last year. Households and companies in Japan reportedly waste about 19 million tons of food a year, one-third of which is edible.

Compare these cases with the more than 800 million people across the globe still suffering from hunger, as figures from the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization show, or how climate change and poor western regions in the country continue to challenge the food security borne by stretched farmers and cropland.

Consider how a global food shortage threatened about 100 million people across 37 countries just a year ago, and wasting food on tables becomes even more unconscionable.

The latest three-dish official menu also serves as a refreshing reminder of the plight of the have-nots who stand to bear the brunt of the current economic slowdown.

So for Chinese hosts and consumers, sticking to lean meals reaps a triple treat - healthy minds and bodies, as well as a more efficient economy.

E-mail: alexishooi@chinadaily.com.cn