Chinese government is asking its citizens to eat less meat and eggs in an effort to fight obesity.

The National Health and Family Planning commission plans to tackle the country’s chronic health problems by reducing meat and egg consumption to 200 grams per day, the Independent reports.

The average Chinese person currently consumes around 272g of meat and 235g of dairy per day.

This reduction could be damaging for US exporters of meat, but environmentalists believe less meat consumption would also benefit the environment as factory farms cause methane pollution.

Childhood obesity has also been on the increase since the 1980s due to an influenced western diet which includes more soft drinks, according to research published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology.

Moreover, health officials noticed that a growing link between urbanisation and increased food consumption is to blame for China’s growing obesity and increased levels of diabetes.