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Delight and Worries About Students' Nourishment
The date May 20 marks the 10th Nutrition Day for Chinese Students, with its theme reading " Nutritious Lunch in Coordination With Quality-Oriented Education, Fostering Talented People for Our Country". A symposium was held to discuss the present condition of students' nourishment, which was organized by the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Education, All-China Women's Federation, and several other national organizations.
During the 50 years since New China was founded in 1949, the level of growth of Chinese youth has witnessed an upward trend, but problems remain, and in some cases, the problems are rather serious, experts point out. Survey shows that, 34.7 and 32.9 percent urban and rural boys are suffering from slight malnutrition and underweight respectively, and among girls the figures are 43.8 and 38.8 percent. The shortage in absorbing calcium, vitamin A, riboflavin, and iron-deficiency anemia prevailed. Over nutrition has increased annually among students aged between 7-18, especially among urban boys, in which overweight and obesity reached 12.03 percent. The unbalance of nourishment absorbing has seriously hindered students' physical and mental development, laying hidden danger for future illness, such as diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.
The main causes of malnutrition lie in the lack of nutritional balance awareness and blind pursuit of expensive food. A small group of people are also suffering from shortage of food. Besides, neglect of physical exercises and excessive load of homework also contribute to malnutrition.
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