From the article...<p>"While Chinese per capita meat consumption lags significantly behind the US, China is the world’s largest consumer of animal products, making up 27 per cent of the global total in 2021, because of the size of its population, according to a McKinsey & Company report."<p>So, they are getting more protein from veggies? Given the US has one of the highest rates of obesity in the world, this seems to be more about preferences in diet.<p><a href="https://archive.md/mL8jp#selection-2539.0-2539.265" rel="nofollow">https://archive.md/mL8jp#selection-2539.0-2539.265</a><p>ETA: I wonder how much of this is shopping habits as well. In the Philippines, many people shop at the local market where they buy fish, pork, chicken, eggs, and veggies. If I go to the grocery store, I notice many baskets have packaged stuff which doesn't even resemble food.<p>But the article starts with this... "China has surpassed the US in the amount of daily dietary protein available to its population." So, it's counting the inputs with the idea that those end up somewhere even if it's junk food? It's also not clear how much of that availability is for animal feed. More mouths to feed in China, also means more animals to feed to get that protein. Complex subject.
> China’s protein supply contained more vegetal sources, with vegetables, fruits, beans, nuts, seeds, and wheat, oat, rice, barley, maize and their products making up 60.5 per cent.
Americans are stereotypical for getting enough to eat, and working out was less of a luxury than a way of life for a people that consumed steak and cheeseburgers in the local family buffet. Now, being muscular is expensive—you still get easier access to protein in the US compared to Europe, but young Chinese men these days, they’re all tall, they work out (well, many of them).<p>Physical health is the most important thing in society, one should not live in a country that doesn’t promote their individual health, growth, strength and power. It seems at least the CCP has prioritized this, at least as far as the notoriously unbiased South China Morning Post reports.