JOHANNESBURG, Jan. 21 (Xinhuanet) -- While the legacy of apartheid is still visible from widespread stunt among young black South Africans, they are running higher risks of developing chronic diseases due to the chip-and-couch lifestyle, a typical product of westernization.

    Medical researchers said on Friday that black children born in 1990 are lagging behind those of other races in their physical development, a sign of persistent poor health and nutrition during infancy.

    But meanwhile, the young "Big Mac" generation face the increased risk of developing obesity and type II diabetes because their traditional low-fat, high-fiber diets are giving way to the convenience of fast foods, and they live a lazier lifestyle.

    South African national newspaper The Star reported on Friday that this is the conclusion of a research, Physical Growth in a Transitional Economy: The Aftermath of South African Apartheid, conducted by Professor Noel Cameron of Loughborough University in Britain.

    One in five were stunted among 3,000 surveyed children born in Soweto and Johannesburg in 1990, among whom 79 percent are black, 12 percent colored, 6 percent white and 3 percent Indian, the study showed.

    The growth of white children continues to be superior and the differences that existed at birth and during infancy had not diminished in childhood and early adolescence.

    "The economic, health and education systems (in the apartheid era) were heavily weighted in favor of whites, and patterns of morbidity, mortality, growth and development within and between ethnic groups reflected these disparities and unequal development," the study noted.

    And while post-apartheid social and economic changes were expected to affect child growth and development, the rate of change had been slower than anticipated.

    Meanwhile, the researchers were concerned about a transition indietary habit along with the transition to a post-apartheid democratic society, beginning from 1994.

    Diets had changed from a traditional low-fat, high-fiber diet to a high-fat, low-fiber, high-energy diet characterized by the "habitual intake of fast foods," according to the research.

    This was compounded by urbanization, accompanied by a less active and more sedentary lifestyle.

    "This had produced a number of factors already making themselves apparent - stunting and obesity," the study warned. Enditem