Food and health

We "foreigners" often comment on the eating of our Chinese students. They always seem to be eating and they talk frequently about their love of food and concern that they should always be eating healthy fresh food for the good of their health.

It does appear to us that the students are healthy - there are infrequent absences due to sickness, but at the same time we find them tired all the time. Now I know they have a full day. Up at 6.15 am, and classes until 8.30 pm, but their days are not all filled with work. They have a two hour break during the day and like many Chinese people, they sleep during that time. Most do some exercise in the morning - in fact it is part of their culture to regularly exercise. The first year students must attend morning exercise in the sports field, but for the others it is optional.

They certainly eat a lot of rice and noodles, not much meat and in reality not a lot of vegetables unless they choose to eat at certain canteens at the college. They certainly like their buns, and quite a lot of strange snacks that I am unable to identify.

Their is an emphasis on "fresh" food - but we wonder at some of the methods of handing food. In the markets the fresh fruit and vegetables look good - but the water they are washed in is often questionable. If they wash the vegetables in the canals, which we see them do often, we have some concerns. The canal water is often quite polluted. The meat in the markets is open to the flies, and is not refrigerated all the time.

The hot food cooked in the street markets is certainly freshly cooked, but the surrounds are dirty, dusty and full of rubbish. One has to walk gingerly through the piles of foodstuffs to access the food stalls.

In the supermarkets the flies are regular visitors and are often seen sitting on food. Ugh!

The girls are obsessed about being slim, and we are aware of some students who have made themselves ill over their determination not to eat too much and keep their slender bodies. In a similar way to some teenagers here, but there is much pressure on all the girls as they talk about having to be beautiful in a way that I have not heard before.

We wonder if the teenagers are getting enough protein in their diets. There is little meat in their diet.

Certainly our health departments would be astonished at the way food is handled.