| It's common knowledge that an increasing number of Chinese are consuming more protein as their wealth grows. But it was surprising news to me that today, the protein consumption of Chinese citizens — both plant and animal-based — is more, on average, than Americans'. In the past few decades, a dietary evolution that's seen the inclusion of poultry, red meat and seafood on our dinner plates has helped China largely overcome the problem of malnutrition, with an 80% reduction in such cases between 1992 and 2015. Still, the change has brought on an altogether different challenge. The shift from a primarily grain-based diet to more meat products is closely associated with an increase in health-related expenditures, according to research from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Central China Normal University earlier this year. Consumption of more animal-based foods will also probably cause residents' personal spending on health-care services to rise by 95 billion yuan ($13.4 billion) by 2030, the researchers estimated. "In the context of China's healthcare system development and reform, transitioning to a plant-based diet will be crucial for reducing personal costs and optimizing medical expenditure," they said. It's not just protein. China's fat intake has increased substantially in the past three decades, too, while dietary fiber and carbohydrates have decreased because of a drop in grain-based food consumption. "The trends of diversified diets in China have generated a growing number of nutritional health problems and healthcare investment is bearing a large burden from the diets," the study's authors wrote. China ranks at the top of the global meat market, consuming a total of almost 103 million tonnes in 2022, or about one-third of the world's total. Although the mainland still trails the US and Europe in per-capita meat consumption, its 70.6 kilograms (roughly 155 pounds) per year is much higher than the amount officially recommended by the Chinese government. Anyone traveling across China can easily see that this trend isn't going away anytime soon. Even with the economy's slowdown, it's typical to find school children swarming McDonald's and KFC outlets and middle-class families snapping up premium cuts of meat at Sam's Club. And while campaigns to reduce meat consumption for both health and environmental reasons are common in the West, in China such attempts often tend to backfire. Companies that have sought to promote plant-based meat in China haven't had much luck, either. Other studies, including one by Oxford University, have warned of the health risks from frequent consumption of meat. The Oxford research, which looked at data from nearly 475,000 middle-aged adults, showed that higher consumption was associated with higher risks of conditions from heart disease and pneumonia to colon polyps and diabetes. —Karoline Kan | 
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