Urban nutritional problems of Korea

Rapid economic development resulted in urbanization of Korea, since 1960s. Seoul is the center of politics, finance, education and culture of Korea. Mostly young people have migrated to large cities, such as Seoul and Pusan. For instance, the population in Seoul city was 2.5 million in 1960 but increased to 10 million in 1990. Presently, total population of Seoul and Pusan, second largest city, composed of approximately 50% of whole national population. The economic distribution among urban people became extremely uneven creating a large gap between low and high income group. As a consequence, both under and over nutritional problems coexist. According to the national nutrition survey data, animal food, such as meat, fish and dairy products have been consumed about 6 times more, and cereal consumption was far less in higher income group. In terms of nutrients intake, 28% of total caloric intake comes from lipids and 15-17% of total caloric intake from protein. This was found in higher income group, while low income group consumed more than 80% of total caloric intake from carbohydrate. The trends of major causes of death in Korea have changed. The degenerative diseases, cerebral disorder, high blood pressure became leading cause of death in recent years. Malignant neoplasm and diabetes followed second leading cause of death in Korea. Undernutrition and nutritional insufficiencies, anemia and low growth rate continue to exist among low income group. According to the annual death rate by age group, the age between 34-54 was the highest in the world.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)