SHENZHEN Chronic Disease Control and Prevention Center will implement an expanded intervention program at 97 primary schools to prevent obesity among children through healthy nutrition, according to a Nanfang Daily report Wednesday.

At a training program hosted by the center Tuesday on children’s diet and nutrition, the center said children’s awareness of the importance of having healthy foods and avoiding eating snacks had risen since the program was first introduced among nearly 10,000 students in 39 primary schools in the 2016 school year.

A survey conducted by Shenzhen’s health commission and the education bureau over 3,748 students and 3,480 parents showed that 43 percent of the students often ate potato chips as snacks. After the program was implemented, the number dropped to 31 percent.

The number of students who ate fruit jelly and drank carbonated drinks also dropped by 9 percent and 17 percent, respectively, after the intervention program. More students replaced those drinks with water.

The survey showed more students have started to look at the nutrient labels on snack cans before they purchase the snacks, and they care more about the production dates.

Statistics from Shenzhen Center for Disease Prevention and Control showed that 14.2 percent of students in primary and middle schools were suffering from obesity in the 2015 school year, 0.53 percent higher than the previous school year.

(Han Ximin)