SHANGHAI - The Shanghai municipal government has launched a new initiative to promote the importance of good health.

The Shanghai Patriotic Health Campaign Committee, a local government agency in charge of promoting good health, has distributed Expo health packs to 10 million households in a bid to encourage residents to stay healthy.

The pack includes a waist circumference ruler and a health self-management manual.

On the double-sided plastic ruler, different colors identify levels: fit, overweight or obese, based on waist circumference.

Full?coverage:

The ruler includes a Body Mass Index, an important measurement for identifying healthy weight. The index is based on height, age and gender.

"In the past, I only knew my waist size was increasing when I bought new trousers," said Gu Jing, a 62-year-old resident from the Jing'an Temple community in Jing'an district. "Now with the ruler, I'll get a clearer idea of my weight."

The manual for health management is an illustrated guide to maintain a healthy lifestyle and suggests "walking 10,000 yards every day and eating a balanced diet".

The website of the Shanghai Patriotic Health Campaign Committee cited a World Health Organization research paper pointing out that lifestyle has a significant impact on people's health. Lifestyle accounts for 60 percent of factors that impact one's health, dwarfing social, environmental, medical factors and genetics.

In previous years, the Shanghai Patriotic Health Campaign Committee distributed free salt spoons and oil pots to promote restriction of these elements in our daily diets, an initiative that proved effective.

These items helped promote an awareness of a healthy diet, according to the website of the Shanghai Patriotic Health Campaign.

Just one month after distribution, 75 percent of residents were controlling their daily intake of salt and 85 percent of them were limiting daily intake of oil.

Before the distribution, the figures were as low as 43 percent and 46 percent.

China Daily