Chinanews, Beijing, November 24 – The fast spread of Western-style fast food in China has led to a hidden danger to food security in China.The first Western-style fast food restaurants in Beijing were opened in the late 1980s, and since then they have become the favorite of many young people in China, who consider dining in them as fashionable. Nowadays, such restaurants are very common in big Chinese cities.According to a research in Guangzhou, Shanghai, Jinan and Harbin, 2/3 of local residents have been to Western-style fast food restaurants. 90% of kids have had Western-style fast food, 20% of whom go to such restaurants once or twice in a month. 1/3 of kids also consider Western-style fast food restaurants as a good place for hosting birthday parties.Why Chinese kids love such junk food so much? First, most Western-style fast food restaurants regularly launch promotion campaigns aimed at kids. Second, the greasy junk food itself is addictive. Third, quite a large number of Chinese kids blindly admire everythingthing foreign. Fourth, Western-style fast food restaurants have good environment and enjoyable service.“A balanced diet is very important to one’s health, and Western-style fast food is no healthy diet at all. It might lead to chronic food security problems,” said Zhao Lin, a nutritionist in the No. 301 Hospital in Beijing.