Its the growing number of customers such as Bill Chung, who is on a diet after packing on 30 kilograms, that food companies hope to attract as they expand health food lines in Asia.
Affluence and sedentary lifestyles have brought health problems such as obesity and diabetes to Asia, prompting locals such as Chung to fill up their shopping carts with products such as oats, yoghurt and vitamins.
“I went to a bookstore and read about it,” said Chung, 33, a self-employed Taipei resident who lost six kilograms 13 pounds over the …

For Asians, it seems, being young and thin isn’t enough to ward off Type II diabetes. Though the disease is typically associated with old age and obesity, a study published May 27 in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) shows that Asia’s growing number of diabetics are relatively young and well under weights traditionally matched with the disease.
Once considered a ‘western’ disease, diabetes has become an increasingly a global problem. The International Diabetes Federation predicts that the number of individuals with the disease will increase from 240 …