When the world's malnutrition rate decreased the pace of declines, China's malnutrition rate was down quickly from 9.5 percent to 2.5 percent and stayed steady for the last decade. Among the Chinese, malnutrition is history while healthy diets are gaining popularity.

The first evidence is protein intake. From 2012 to 2019, China's per capita daily protein intake had increased from 96.83g to 105.3g, surpassing the North American average in 2014 and European average in 2016.

Meanwhile by taking a closer look at China's per capita daily fat intake, the good news is that it's only 105g in 2019, which is much lower and healthier than the European averages at 133g and North Americans at 145g.

But the bad news is that, when too much fat intake can cause obesity, China had the largest increase from 2012 to 2019, compared to western regions and the world level. Therefore, obstacles to a healthier diet for the Chinese would be their excessive eating of red meat, including pork, beef or lamb.

According to 2021 Global Nutrition Report, people in China eat 105g red meat daily, which is twice the global average of about 50g and well beyond the scientifically recommended intake of 14g per day. Additionally, Chinese people's daily intakes of fruit, legumes, nuts and whole grains fell short of recommended targets.

Even though more Chinese talk about healthy diets, how to achieve it is another question. In 2015, the first National Nutrition Week was launched to promote more public awareness of nutrition and dietary behaviors. In the following year, Beijing introduced the "Healthy China 2030 Planning Outline," elevating it to the highest government level.

Nevertheless, among China's younger generation who has enjoyed sufficient benefits from nutrition development, they are big fans of low-fat, low-sugar and low-salt, and low-calorie diets. According to Meituan's China Light Food Delivery Consumption Report, the amount of light food orders increased 98 percent as of September 2019 compared with the previous year.

Knowledge and actions can help Chinese diets not only nutritious, but more balance is necessary.

(If you want to contribute and have specific expertise, please contact us at opinions@cgtn.com. Follow @thouse_opinions on Twitter to discover the latest commentaries in the CGTN Opinion Section.)