The Rise of Ultra Processed Food in China

Towards the end of Van Tulleken’s book, Ultra Processed Food, a statistic jumped out at me: obesity rates in China between 1980 and 2015 went up by 800%. We might simply assume that in the 1980s, China was too poor to feed itself and that this statistic is directly relational to wealth everywhere. Certainly China was poor, especially in rural areas, but in cities like Beijing and Shanghai, there was food and there was plenty of cooking going on. Traditional dishes were cooked in kitchens at home, or in restaurants across the country using Chinese staples of wheat, corn or rice alongside vegetables, seasonings and a touch of meat (often pork).

The first KFC to open in 1987, Beijing.

But in 1987, the first KFC opened to immediate success - it was a 500 seater restaurant in the heart of Beijing, serving more than 2000 chickens a day. McDonalds and Pizza Hut both dipped their toes into the Chinese market in 1990 and boomed. Today, much like the West, you can’t go more than a block in any Chinese city centre without seeing one of the big four - KFC, McDonalds, Pizza Hut or Starbucks.

Curious Beijingers peering into the window of KFC in 1987.

One question I’m asked frequently from friends in the West is: can you get Western food in China?

To me, it seems silly to even ask, but to most people, the image of Chinese food is still quite healthy: simple broths, congee, steamed buns, vegetables and pickles. Sure, that food hasn’t gone anywhere, but it’s getting buried under the flashy signs of fast food. There are more than 5000 branches of KFC in China, but try finding that many dim sum restaurants in the country.

The marketing of fast-food chains is a similar story in any developing nation; they are pitched as a symbol of Western sophistication, modernity and proud decadence. Eating a burger is a way to become more American, taking you closer to the wealth of the USA. The rise of fast-food, and with it Ultra Processed Food (UPF), didn’t take long in China. UPF has seeped into every pore of the Chinese food scene. 7-Eleven is everywhere, tiny stores stuffed with colourful packets of processed meat, spicy tofu snacks, crunchy nuts, sweet buns, chocolate and candy. The fruit stores are now lined with Ultra Processed Chinese snacks. The streets are filled with people sucking down thousand-calorie Starbucks drinks, even restaurants are pumping out UPF to unsuspecting customers in the form of ready-made sauces and seasonings. Indeed, I wonder if there’s a single restaurant in Beijing that makes its Kung Pao Chicken from scratch. Every single one tastes identical and has the same gloopy distinct orange from place to place.

Of course, we could blame UPF and fast-food for the rise of obesity and health problems in China, but it also allowed China to develop at speed. Any lifestyle that is overworked is forced to rely on quick, convenient food. Office workers can order McDonalds straight to their company, wolf down a burger in ten minutes and get straight back to work. Women don’t need to be at home cooking for the family, no one needs to set aside a few hours a day for cooking - instead, everyone’s focus is on the economy, on putting in the hours, and on accumulating wealth.

The statistic is not that surprising then. If we believe in Chris Van Tulleken’s hypothesis that it’s not simply the amount of calories that’s causing obesity, but something fundamental in UPF, then, of course an 800% rise in obesity maps to the increase of UPF permeating Chinese society.

In 2018, obesity rates in China were 8.1%, three times higher than in 2004. That’s an incredibly bleak statistic. But I am surrounded by Chinese employees and see their lunches every day. They are not doubling up their calorie in-take year on year, but I do see brown paper KFC bags on the table alongside the home-cooked rice and vegetables. A bit of KFC chicken three or four times a week next to steamed vegetables doesn’t sound that bad. It’s exactly the argument of UPF companies - that their products can be enjoyed as part of a healthy lifestyle. And yet, my worry is that even a small increase in these UPFs is doing immense damage to the Chinese population. My even bigger worry is that no one really knows about it, or can talk about it. At least in the West we have diligent individuals like Tulleken (and Bee Wilson, Henry Dimbleby, Tim Spector, Michael Pollen and many many more) openly talking about the situation. In China, any discussion of diet quickly leads to a criticism of government policy, and thus, this may well remain a silent issue for years to come.